Essay about Safe Surrendered Baby Law

In the book Unwind by Neal Shusterman a law is passed to where mothers who can no longer can finically support their babies or no longer want their infant, are permitted to leave the unwanted child on someone else's porch, also referred to as "storking". This law or,"Storking Initave", was passed to result in less abortions. Under one circumstance, if the mother is caught leaving the child on a random family's porch, the mother has to keep their child. After the birth mother is caught she has the option of keeping the child or sending it to the state home to be come a ward of the state. If the family who received the baby keeps the child they become the parents of the child, but if the family does not want it they are allowed to pass it on to someone else's porch.The child is now referred to as a "stork".

California is rated one of the top three highest human trafficking areas in the United States. Children are among the most vulnerable victims. Most girls involved in the foster care system are at a higher risk for being trafficked. According to a blog post by Sarah Symons, entitled, “About Human Slavery”, about 22 percent of the children being enslaved do not even make it to their adulthood. More than 200,000 children are at a high risk for being lured into sex trafficking in the United States every year.

For over a decade, California has implemented policies to reduce the number of children in out-of-home foster care placements, which has resulted in a decline from a high of over 100,000 youth in foster care in 1999 to about 60,000 in 2014. These policy changes have included preventative efforts to reduce the likelihood that a child is removed from his or her home, early intervention in child welfare cases, and assistance with finding children permanent homes with relatives and through adoption.

The implementation of the ASFA certainly carries many strengths with its amendments to the AACWA, including a title using “the term ‘safe families’ that few people would want to oppose legislation with this goal” (Jansson, 2008). One of the strengths of the new law was its movement away from bias favoring reunification that the AACWA once carried, and the placing of emphasis on child safety. Another strength was the change from selective provision of services to universal provision of services, where all special needs children would receive health coverage, regardless of whether or not they were a Title IV-E adoption. The switch to annual judicial permanency planning hearings was also an

As of September 30th 2014 there were 415,129 children in the foster care system in the

Nowadays, we see this abandonment in pregnant teenagers who are not ready for a child just yet. A girl throws her baby in a dumpster because she knows she can’t

Holt told of one instance in Maryville, Kansas, where “there were 150 families wanting to adopt, or take in, fourteen children, and they almost had fisticuffs out in the street because there were so many people who wanted these little children.” (Scheurman, 2007).

Many people think it is wrong to just leave your child at a hospital and forget about it, but there are worse fates for children whose parents did not know about the Safe Haven Laws. The risk of homicide on the first day of life is 10 times greater than the rate during any other time of life (Herman-Giddens 1425). In a population-based study called Newborns Killed or Left to Die by a Parent, five authors describe cases of infant death and abandonment in North Carolina, “Over a 16 year period in North Carolina, we report 34 newborns known to be killed or discarded in the first day of life by (or likely) the parents, an annual rate of 2.1 per 100,000 newborns” (Herman-Giddens 1428). Sadly, only a few deaths were unintentional, “The majority of these cases (91.2%) were ruled as homicides, while three were found to be unintentional due to natural causes” (Herman-Giddens 1428). Mothers were usually the ones that abandon or kill the newborn, “mothers were the perpetrators in all cases where the perpetrator was positively identified” (Herman-Giddens 1428).

In all cases, when a baby is surrendered, the baby must be given to a person. It is illegal and dangerous

If you are having difficulty caring for your child, but you are not ready to make an adoption plan, as long as your baby is less than 31 days old, you should consider taking advantage of the Safe Haven law. This law allows you to take your infant to a hospital, where he or she will be cared for.

When states do adopted there next job would to be to inform the public about the safe haven law, and then the states would see number decrease of infant abetment in unsafe places. “Since 1999, 2,138 children have been relinquished nationwide under the Baby Safe Haven laws. Florida accounts for nearly 10 percent of that total, with 202 children left at safe havens around the state since 2000. Illinois has had 86 children left at safe havens since 2001. In the 12 years Arizona’s law has been in effect, 24 children have been left at safe havens.” (Hensley) With some states the law would become successful, but in some states it will only work for the ones that have an increase in mothers who are having baby kind like a “baby

Safe Haven laws were created in the US to try and ensure that the rate of infanticide drop. The Safe Haven laws generally allow parents, family members, or legal guardians to relinquish the child to a location that is designated as a safe haven by the state they line (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). These laws have been implemented in all the states in the United States. International there are laws that where put in place before Safe Haven laws were created in the US. France has had an anonymous free delivery of unwanted babies since 1941(Friedman & Resnick, 2008). Also in many other countries they have “baby hatches,” which allows for anonymous drop offs of infants. Austria did not pass an anonymous birth law until 2001(Friedman & Resnick, 2008). These laws are similar to those in the US because they allow for the parents to relinquish their children

The early foster system was established in the 1500s in order to care for children who were removed from their parents. Foster care was intended to be a short-term solution until the child is either adopted or reunited with their family. However, the average child will spend over two years waiting to be adopted. But the flaws in this system run much deeper from mental disorders all the way to human trafficking. human trafficking through the foster system is a dire problem that can not be neglected. Today i will be sharing with you through three points; the problem, the pressure( that these kids are under) and the promise(of a better future).

The Columbus Dispatch editorial "Saving Our Kids" gives a disturbing look at the high infant mortality rates in Ohio, and their plan to decrease these fatalities. It is truly shocking when beginning to take a look at these numbers. The Columbus Dispatch stated, "In Ohio, in 2011, more than one thousand children died before their first birthday". These numbers tell us that Ohio is failing our infants when it comes to keeping them healthy.

One of the most hurtful thing anyone could do is allow the government to take their child away. In the United States over a half a million children are in foster care. Within the recent years changes in reducing the time that children spend in foster care have caused more adoption. In Texas 12,000 children live in institutions as foster children. The federal government has mandated that Texas must change its system dramatically. Most states have only 18 months to reunite children with their families or put them up for adoption and or enter permanent foster care. With a shortage of funding hundreds of children sleep in state buildings and with this comes a lot of pressure. Texas lawmakers will have a lot to deal with because of its broken system.