The story of a newborn baby who was found on a Newton, Massachusetts
doorstep piqued my curiosity about laws concerning abandoned babies. In this
particular case, police wished that the woman or parents who abandoned the baby
had known about the Massachusetts
law that makes it legal to surrender babies at a “safe haven” (hospitals and
police or fire stations) in the first seven days of an infant’s life.
This
got
me to wondering about the pros and cons of legalizing baby abandonment.
The
overarching concern is clearly the baby’s survival, which is more
likely if the child is left in a safe place. But does legalizing baby
abandonment mean that desperate mothers will be more likely to leave
their newborns,
rather than seeking medical attention and going through the process of
legal
adoption?
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