Friday, February 29, 2008

NEBRASKA'S NEW BABY DUMP LAW: BETTER THAN RITALIN!

In case you missed it, Alaska and Nebraska finally went over to the dark side and legalized baby dumping recently. But in the case of the Nebraska law, it's fast-track child dumping. Child welfare workers and juvenile court judges are gonna love working with this one!

The law, outside of a two sentence intro, reads in full:

Section 1. No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska. The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child.

Note that any CHILD can be left at a hospital. No age limit. In other words, the Nebraska legislature just legalized child abandonment as long as it's done "properly."

Wanna test-drive your kid? Move to Nebraska! Terrible 2s? No problemo! How about that mouthy 13-year old son? Cheaper than Ritalin.

LB157 is the late Dr. Pierce's fantasy of flexibility" of choice, "non-bureaucratic placement" and safe havens at any age.* Appropriately, Nebraska is Dr. Pierce's home state. Lately, he's been thunking his shoe in heaven (think Maine!) , but I heard a little chortle, too.

More on Nebraska later.


*Due to time constraints, I have unable to find Bill's comment about edging up the age of SH kids, which he posted on alt.adoption. I'm still looking.

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