Controversy in the United States: they install mailboxes to "drop" unwanted newborns

February 19, 2019

They speak to mothers who need help. "It's a last resort, abandonment is a problem," they told the BBC.

In December, in the state of Indiana, in the United States, the seventh "baby mailbox" has been installed, a place where may be "deposited" on unwanted newborns.

This mailbox is located inside the fire station and looks like a postal incubator., directed to mothers who need help. By the time a baby is put inside, An alert alerts the emergency services and the child is recovered in less than five minutes.

Priscilla Pruitt of Safe Haven Baby Boxes spoke with Vicky Baker, a journalist with BBC in the USA: "This is a last resort, abandonment is a problem. These young women do not want to be known or to see them. Especially in small towns where everyone knows each other. "

According to the specialist, the goal is to combat infanticide that occurs when mothers, often young and unsafe, give birth completely alone and can not continue with the situation.

They had three children and they no longer thought of expanding the family, but they had sevenfold!

But this measure, which appeared in the country in 2016, provoked controversy: only three states have approved the legislation relating to the installation of these mailboxes. Rick Snyder, Michigan Governor, voked the law: "I do not think it's appropriate allow parents to give up a baby simply by placing it in a location before handing it over to a police officer, firefighter or hospital employee "

Live, a Danish research center, has researched information about European countries where the use of these mailboxes has been approved, but still has not found any statistics on the impact that 39 he has on the number of babies found dead in the open air.

Michelle Oberman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, told the BBC, "It's hard to say that's a bad idea, but it looks like it's a little bit wrong. The shelter law is the least bad option when the alternative is a baby in a garbage bin, but there are reasons why we have adopted adoption programs in order to have as much information as possible. "

He added: "I find it hard to imagine that just after the birth of a baby, alone in the bathroom, we expect you to know the law, ride in a bus or a Uber and leave it in the mailbox. "