Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / May 2006

MASSACHUSETTS

http://news.bostonherald.com/opinion/view.bg?articleid=137008

Dumpster no safe haven

By Boston Herald editorial staff
Friday, April 28, 2006

There is an urgent need to remind young women who are pregnant,
desperate and soon to give birth that they do have options if they are
unprepared for parenthood - other than abandoning their newborn in a
dumpster to die.

   Amanda Harris, 22, of Westfield has been charged with attempted
murder, child abandonment and assault and battery after police say she
gave birth to a baby boy, stuffed him into a cereal box, wrapped it in
a bath mat, and left him in a dumpster before seeking treatment for
herself at a hospital. Police and paramedics found the baby hours later
and he survived - though likely with brain damage.

   The Safe Havens law was enacted to prevent this very kind of
tragedy.

   Under the law, a parent may leave a child under seven days old at a
police station, a hospital or a manned fire station without fear of
criminal prosecution for abandonment - provided there has been no
abuse. Twice since the law was enacted, infants have been left at
designated sites.

    In other words, the Safe Havens law works. And every pregnant
woman should know about it.

    Whether Amanda Harris understood she had this option, we may never
know. But we do know that if this child been left in the care of
professionals, instead of buried under the refuse, chances are he
wouldn't be suffering today.