Safe-haven law is to prevent tragedies

The horrific murder of a newborn in Port Angeles serves as a timely reminder that Washington has a safe-haven law in place to protect newborns and ensure that their mothers won't face criminal charges.

The details of the Port Angeles murder are shocking. A 16-year-old is accused of drowning her newborn son in a toilet, then throwing the child into a garbage can.

Law enforcement authorities combed through 60 tons of trash, finding the newborn's body last week. It will take DNA tests to show whether the baby is that of the teenager arrested for investigation of murder.

The teen was placed in juvenile detention with bail set at $500,000 and her father was jailed for investigation of concealing a birth and felony drug and firearms possession charges.

Police believe the baby boy was drowned in a toilet after his birth Dec. 30 and was put in trash that was picked up the next day. The trash was in two containers that were taken to a transfer station in Tacoma, about 80 miles southeast of Port Angeles, for shipment to Oregon. Law enforcement officers diverted the garbage to a site in Graham where the awful task of searching for the body took place.

As heart-wrenching as the story is, it serves as a reminder to others that the safe-haven law is to prevent this very tragedy.

Washington's safe-haven law has been on the books since April 3, 2002. At the time, lawmakers said their intent in passage of the law was to increase the likelihood that pregnant women will obtain adequate prenatal care and will provide their newborns with adequate health care during the first few days of their lives.

It is, as lawmakers said, a fine line. They wanted to protect newborns by giving women a safe place where they could leave their newborn while at the same time not encouraging women to abandon their newborn.

The law says that a newborn may be left with a "qualified person" at an "appropriate location" within the first 72 hours of birth. Parents who follow the law are guaranteed that they won't be held criminally liable for child abandonment.

The law specifies that an "appropriate location" is either an hospital emergency room or a fire station during its hours of operation and while fire personnel are present.

The law defines a "qualified person" as "any person that the parent transferring the newborn reasonably believes is a bona fide employee, volunteer, or medical staff member of the hospital ..." or "a firefighter, volunteer, or emergency medical technician at a fire station ..."

The law says that the person receiving the child must not require the parent to provide any identifying information. That gives parents permission to transfer a child anonymously.

On its Web site, state Department of Social and Health Services officials say as long as the newborn is turned in unharmed from abuse or neglect, the guarantee of anonymity and immunity from prosecution applies.

People who do not follow the safe-haven law are subject to criminal prosecution.

Under a separate law, any parent or person entrusted with the physical custody of a child who "recklessly abandons" the child can be found guilty of abandonment, a class B felony.

A "family abandonment" law says that any person who "has a child dependent upon him or her for care, education or support and deserts such child ..." can be found guilty of a class C felony.

Desperate times require desperate measures. But every newborn deserves a chance at life. Washington's safe-haven law gives both mother and child that opportunity.