BabySafeHaven
06-30-2004, 02:37 PM
MASSACHUSETTS
http://oldcolony.southofboston.com/articles/2004/06/30/news/news06.txt
Opinion: Legislation overdue
What's the priority? Protecting a newborn baby or punishing the parent who
might abandon it?
For the Massachusetts legislature, the answer has been punishment, not
protection, and that's a crime.
The legislature is taking up this issue again this week, after sucking its
thumb for years. This time, spurred by the stories about a baby boy abandoned
on the steps of a church on Martha's Vineyard, it may finally, belatedly get
the job done.
Baby Vinnie is out of critical condition. He might never have been in critical
condition if the state had a Safe Haven law, allowing parents to legally and
anonymously leave a newborn in a safe place, such as a hospital, police station
or fire station.
In an ideal world, no parent would ever be desperate enough to consider
abandoning a child. Most parents never will consider it. This is a rule aimed
at vulnerable, frightened, and usually very young parents, parents who don't
believe they have choices. This is a law aimed at saving the lives of newborns,
not at making a moral statement about parenting. It removes the possibility of
prosecuting parents for abandoning a newborn, if they take it to a safe place
and if there is no sign of abuse.
Baby Vinnie was left out in the cold, soaked by a lawn sprinkler, before a
passerby found him last week at the back door of a church in Tisbury. In
another state, in nearly every other state, he might have been dropped off
safely and anonymously at the fire station or police station. Someone might
have had a chance to talk to whoever abandoned him in the night, to offer help.
The House passed the bill this spring. It also passed a bill last year, and the
year before that. The Senate was expected to take up the issue this week. A
spokesman for Senate President Robert Travaglini told the MetroWest Daily News
last week that it was in the pipeline anyway. "We were just waiting for an
opportune time," she said.
Last year would have been an opportune time, or the year before that. Texas, of
all places, passed its safe haven legislation in 1999. More than 40 states have
similar legislation on their books.
A Plymouth college student pleaded guilty to manslaughter this February. She
suffocated her baby in a garbage bag after giving birth in a dormitory shower
during her freshman year. She put him in the trash.
No one can possibly say whether a safe haven law would have made any difference
in that case. No one will ever know. It might have. That baby boy might have
turned 2 years old this May, instead of dying within minutes of his birth.
That chance should be more than enough to put the law on the books.
http://oldcolony.southofboston.com/articles/2004/06/30/news/news06.txt
Opinion: Legislation overdue
What's the priority? Protecting a newborn baby or punishing the parent who
might abandon it?
For the Massachusetts legislature, the answer has been punishment, not
protection, and that's a crime.
The legislature is taking up this issue again this week, after sucking its
thumb for years. This time, spurred by the stories about a baby boy abandoned
on the steps of a church on Martha's Vineyard, it may finally, belatedly get
the job done.
Baby Vinnie is out of critical condition. He might never have been in critical
condition if the state had a Safe Haven law, allowing parents to legally and
anonymously leave a newborn in a safe place, such as a hospital, police station
or fire station.
In an ideal world, no parent would ever be desperate enough to consider
abandoning a child. Most parents never will consider it. This is a rule aimed
at vulnerable, frightened, and usually very young parents, parents who don't
believe they have choices. This is a law aimed at saving the lives of newborns,
not at making a moral statement about parenting. It removes the possibility of
prosecuting parents for abandoning a newborn, if they take it to a safe place
and if there is no sign of abuse.
Baby Vinnie was left out in the cold, soaked by a lawn sprinkler, before a
passerby found him last week at the back door of a church in Tisbury. In
another state, in nearly every other state, he might have been dropped off
safely and anonymously at the fire station or police station. Someone might
have had a chance to talk to whoever abandoned him in the night, to offer help.
The House passed the bill this spring. It also passed a bill last year, and the
year before that. The Senate was expected to take up the issue this week. A
spokesman for Senate President Robert Travaglini told the MetroWest Daily News
last week that it was in the pipeline anyway. "We were just waiting for an
opportune time," she said.
Last year would have been an opportune time, or the year before that. Texas, of
all places, passed its safe haven legislation in 1999. More than 40 states have
similar legislation on their books.
A Plymouth college student pleaded guilty to manslaughter this February. She
suffocated her baby in a garbage bag after giving birth in a dormitory shower
during her freshman year. She put him in the trash.
No one can possibly say whether a safe haven law would have made any difference
in that case. No one will ever know. It might have. That baby boy might have
turned 2 years old this May, instead of dying within minutes of his birth.
That chance should be more than enough to put the law on the books.
