Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Something I don't understand...

Well, there's actually a lot of things I don't understand, but today's thing I don't understand relates to something I read in the paper this morning.

So here's my question. Why is it illegal to abandon your baby? I don't mean the dumping in a box in the dumpster kind of abandoning. I get that. But if I were to leave it at a hospital or a police station or a fire station, somewhere I could be sure it would get the care it needed, why is that illegal? (I mean yes, the person should take care of their own kid, but I'd rather the kid get abandoned as an infant and adopted to a good family, which c'mon now all you have to do is read the classifieds of any news paper and discover how desperate people are for babies, than be raised in a bad home because of whatever reason and the kid ends up perpetuating the cycle.) And further, since WA has one of those laws where if you leave your baby at one of those places you won't be convicted of a crime, why are they looking for the mother (releasing her description to the papers)? (This whole question actually is why I'm totally pro-choice. With no restrictions)

2 comments:

Peeved Michelle said...

They have to make an effort to find the mother to make sure the baby was given up by her own free choice. Also, they have to have to make an effort at reunification before they can terminate her parental rights.

I thought safe haven laws made it not illegal to abandon your baby as long as you left the baby at one of the designated places.

Peeved Michelle said...

At my foster parent licensing class, I asked about this. Safe haven laws make it not illegal to drop off your baby at one of the safe haven places. However, you have to meet certain criteria or it is considered child abandonment, which is a criminal offense. The biggest requirement is the length of time you have from when the baby is born and that varies by state. In some states it is as little as 72 hours. In Texas, it is 30 days. We don't get many safe haven babies in Ventura County, but there was just one last week. If a baby comes in through safe surrender and meets the criteria, the authorities make no attempt to identify the mother or find her, even if she is clearly a minor. Anything else is considered abandonment and the authoritities will attempt to identify and locate the mother. Also, for some reason, A LOT of children have entered foster care in VC this month and last night was our last class, so they kept asking, "When do you think you will be ready to take a kid?" Talk about pressure!