Katie Couric's Notebook: Safe Havens
The idea's a good one – to let overwhelmed new parents take their baby to a hospital, no questions asked, if they can't take care of the child. It's worked well in several states – helping save the lives of infants who might otherwise have died from neglect.
Video: But legislators in Nebraska are considering holding a special session to fix the law there that allows parents to abandon children of any age. Last month, a father dropped off nine of his 10 children, ranging in age from one to 17. Then a teenager from Iowa was taken across the border so that she, too, could be placed in state custody. That's not what this law was supposed to allow.
Some of these parents were frustrated with problem kids. Others didn't have money for food. There needs to be a safe place desperate parents can get the help they need to cope with their circumstances, but not a place to dispose of their children and their problems.