Garbage Pail Kids

Garbage Pail Kids

On July 18, 2000, a new piece of morally complex state legislation quietly went into effect. It stated that new mothers, should they find themselves unable or unwilling to care for their newborn infants, could legally abandon them (up to five days after birth) at a hospital, fire station or other safe place without any questions asked, and without fear of prosecution.

On the surface, it was a ham-fisted way of preventing more babies from being dumped in garbage cans or public toilets. At its heart, though, it was all about convenience. Have yourself a baby and then decide you don't want the damn thing? Okay, you can just dump it here and we'll take care of it for you.

The moral issues surrounding the legislation are irrelevant at this point. It's on the books. But for the first year or so, despite a PSA starring Rosie O'Donnell, no one knew you could do such a thing, and more babies were left in dumpsters and at the front doors of pizza parlors.

Slowly, though, after a couple of different ad campaigns were launched, word got out.

So what happens when someone actually does what the law tells them to do in a case like this? Last week gave us ample opportunity to find out, as three abandoned babies were discovered within a two-day period?one each in Harlem, Bay Ridge and Staten Island.

On Staten Island, the fully dressed baby wrapped in a blanket was discovered in a bathroom at St. Vincent's hospital. In Bay Ridge, the baby was left in a shopping bag in an apartment-complex vestibule. The Harlem baby was left in a purse in the hallway of a women's health clinic.

Now, two of the three seem to fit the government's definition of "safe place." (The hospital bathroom may seem a little iffy, but until they install drop boxes, what are you gonna do?)

What was one of the first facts to be reported? That "police are looking for the parents." By Thursday, a description and police sketch of the Harlem mother was put out on the wires.

So what happened to the whole "anonymous," "no questions asked," "no retribution" business?

The NY1 story ended with this:

"A state law allows parents to anonymously leave unwanted newborns at hospitals, firehouses or police stations without fear of prosecution, but that law does not apply in?these cases, officials say."

But they don't say why these cases don't qualify, or what these parents did wrong. Whether you think the law is a good thing or not, whether you sympathize with or are horrified by what these people did with these infants, it certainly seems that in two out of the three cases, the parents were making a decent, sincere effort to act in accordance with the law. Yet they're still going to be tracked down?for reasons that aren't clear. It certainly doesn't bode well for the p.r. firm that was hired to explain the law to people, or for any future attempts to comply with the law.

We're just trying to figure out what point is being made here?and we're also going to be keeping our ears open every time we pass a dumpster.