Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
We were having a rash of baby abandonments going on and I just started wondering what
would make a young mother or a young teenager do that, so I decided when it was time for
me to think of my research topic, I wanted to look in to neonaticide, which is the abandonment
of newborns, and when I was researching that I came a-crossed The Pennsylvania Safe Haven
law, and I thought well you know, we have this law, there is no reason for these babies
to be basically dumped in dumpsters or you know in the streets, when we have this law.
The Problem is nobody's really educated on this law. That's what I wanted to do, I wanted
to start educating the people on the law. All the mother has to simply do is take it
to a safe haven drop off, which is usually a hospital, and leave the baby, the mother
won't get into trouble and the baby is taken into state custody and then given up for adoption,
so their saving two lives, the baby and the young mothers. I did a lot of work on campus
and talked to my fellow students and some of the faculty members and I had a speaker
from our city, an attorney, that is involved in the Safe Haven law, I arranged for her
to come and speak on our campus and I've put leaflets around, and some posters, and pamphlets
and I periodically make sure that they were all filled up, and I also interviewed with
a superintendent of our local school to see if he was willing for the nurses office to
have these pamphlets, because they were finding out that a lot of the mothers that performed
neonaticides are in high school or they are you freshman, sophomore college women. You
are saving the child's life by giving it a chance to go to another family, so to me it's
ethical. It's a good thing to do. It's a good thing to have. Don't hold back, go for it,
do everything you need to do to find out about it and do everything that you can to get the
word out. Don't stop, don't let people tell you no because it can be done.