Safe Haven in Nebraska

In July of this year, Nebraska passed a SAFE HAVEN law that would allow parents to turn children over to safe places such as hospitals. The law covers children up to age of 19. There hs supposedly been 16 children dropped off at Nebraska hospitals since the law took effect.



One man took 9 of his 10 children (his oldest daughter is 18) to Creighton University Medical Center's emergency room on Wednesday night. He said that his wife of 17 years died earlier this year. He had quit his job to try and take care of his family, but then there was no financial means of support. This poor man was distraught and at the end of his emotional rope. He turned to what he must have thought was the last option he had for his children. I cannot imagine that this was an easy decision.



This law is presented as a way for parents to turn there kids over to a safe authority without fear of prosecution. What they did not tell people is that it is not free from PERSECUTION. This loving father did something that is unimaginable to most people. It had to have taken a great deal of strength and bravery, and what does this man get in return.... public ridicule.



If this man wanted to be selfish he could have ignored the needs of his children and just been a bad father. He chose to face possible bad reaction from his family and the public and get "safe haven" for his children. The media keeps using the phrase "abandoned", publishing his name ( I will not use his name, out of principle), and virtually announcing the situation to the peers of these children. What a horrible thing for the media and the powers that be in this situation to do. Now not only is this family going through this horrible personal crisis, it has to be played out in public. If this was abandonment, you would have found the children alone at home without food, or in the middle of timbuktu.



An article I read said that the law was designed to protect infants. Well that is wonderful, but what is less important about that safety of an older child. Isn't it better for someone at the end of there nerves or emotions, or whatever to do something like this than some of the other horrible things you hear in the news?!



You have women drowning their kids because they just didn't want to be a mom anymore, or as with this poor little Callee Anthony. Lord knows what has happened to her. There have been many reports that Casey Anthony did not want to have the little girl in the first place, and that Casey was jealous of the relationship her mother had with her daughter. Wouldn't it have been so much better if she would have had the sanity to walk away, or turn her little girl over to someone? Why is it better to be known as the woman who killed her kid than the woman who walked away?



Now her case is not like this man,, but at least once a year it seems you hear a story of mom or dad that was stressed out because of money, or whatever and they kill themselves and their whole family. Is Safe Haven not exactly what these families needed? It takes a brave, loving person to turn your kids over to someone else in hopes they will be taken care of. A coward does nothing and lets the kids suffer in neglect, poverty or starvation.



Isn't a child of ANY age worth saving?!