Preventing a tragedy also supports new life
Published 9:44 pm Wednesday, April 4, 2007
By Staff
It is easy for a young pregnant woman to panic. Many various reasons can prevent the mother from being able to accept this role.
While that is unfortunate, an act of desperation can turn into murder and tragedy.
To help prevent the death of a newborn infant, abandoned without care and subject to possible death, Michigan law allows a way for the parents to surrender the child in a safe and legal way.
Safe Delivery of Newborns will lead the child on the road to eventually be adopted into a loving family.
The law passed in 2000 and amended in 2006, lets the birth parent or parents to anonymously surrender their newborn to an "emergency service provider."
This may be an employee of a hospital, police or fire station, or to a paramedic or emergency medical technician responding to a 9-1-1 emergency call. This is to be someone on duty and inside.
There will be no legal repercussions as long as the child is unharmed and no more than three days old. They are asked to offer as much medical history as possible to help in the child's future, which will be kept confidential.
Since this law was enacted, there have been 44 infants surrendered to emergency service providers around Michigan. They are placed with a licensed adoption agency with a goal of permanent adoption in a loving home.
A 24/7 hotline at 1-866-733-7733 will explain the Safe Delivery procedure, or go online to the Department of Human
Services Web site at www.michigan.gov/dhs.
To raise public and professional awareness of this law to protect newborns from abandonment, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm has proclaimed April 10 Safe Delivery of Newborns Day in Michigan.