The article “Safe Haven or Last Resort?” talked about a situation where a brief and vague legislation that provided parents protection from prosecution for abandoning their child at a designated hospital. The problem with the safe haven law in Nebraska was it didn’t have an age limit like other states that adopted the same law. The resulting problem was parents dropping off teenagers up to the age of 17.
To most people this probably seems insensitive and cruel but my first thought is there had to be extenuating circumstances that forced these parents into such drastic decisions. These are children who have been with these parents for years, what was transpiring in their household all these years? Has something changed lately and the parents can’t take care of them any longer? Are the children a danger to themselves and society? In more cases than we want to admit parents have been asking for help and that help is yet to come. The law was passed to provide mothers an alternative to throwing their babies in the dumpster or murdering them because they didn’t want them or couldn’t take care of them, but this situation in this state it has shined a light on evidently another problem in this country. There seems to be a large hole that we must fill so all children and families can feel safe. People will judge them and say they were wrong but it had to be hard for these parents and just as hard for the children, but the question remains was this their last resort? By dropping these children off was someone else’s life saved?
Most states have the law that created safe haven locations for children and most of them have an age limit but this state does not. It has provided a beacon of light on a situation that was evidently in the dark because even parents from other states drove to Nebraska to drop their children off. The parents have problems or problem teens and they need help, period…and the answer is?
To most people this probably seems insensitive and cruel but my first thought is there had to be extenuating circumstances that forced these parents into such drastic decisions. These are children who have been with these parents for years, what was transpiring in their household all these years? Has something changed lately and the parents can’t take care of them any longer? Are the children a danger to themselves and society? In more cases than we want to admit parents have been asking for help and that help is yet to come. The law was passed to provide mothers an alternative to throwing their babies in the dumpster or murdering them because they didn’t want them or couldn’t take care of them, but this situation in this state it has shined a light on evidently another problem in this country. There seems to be a large hole that we must fill so all children and families can feel safe. People will judge them and say they were wrong but it had to be hard for these parents and just as hard for the children, but the question remains was this their last resort? By dropping these children off was someone else’s life saved?
Most states have the law that created safe haven locations for children and most of them have an age limit but this state does not. It has provided a beacon of light on a situation that was evidently in the dark because even parents from other states drove to Nebraska to drop their children off. The parents have problems or problem teens and they need help, period…and the answer is?
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