Safe Haven Act Research Paper

1690 Words4 Pages

Safe Haven Act Of the four million infants born into the world each year, more than two hundred are killed from infanticide (Flavin, 2009). Many more were discarded by unloving parents but never accounted for. Leaders of the United States took this problem into their own hands to try and combat the abandonment of children. This was done by passing the Safe Haven Act, also known as, the Infant Abandonment Act or Safe Surrender Laws. Due to no reduction in the number of deceased infants found each year and undesirable side effects, one would conclude that the Safe Haven Act needs to be abolished. Economic and social status of new parents are two of the most common reasons a couple would revert to child abandonment (Hammond, 2010). In an effort …show more content…

The sole purpose of the Infant Abandonment Act was created. But rather than decrease the number of infanticides in the U.S. like supporters suggested, the act has merely slowed down the amount of infanticide committed by citizens of the United States. The reason for this being, in its short 16-year career, the Safe Surrender Laws have received little to no funding, allowing no advertising or publicity of the new law and benefits it could bring. This is shown in Buckley’s article which describes how six children were killed and discarded by parents in New York which is double the amount killed in the previous year’s entirety (Buckley, 2001). Without funding the word cannot be spread to regretful mothers and fathers about the solution to their problem. A survey was done to see how well the word has gotten around about safe havens. The survey was taken at a hospital asking residents to describe or identify what a safe haven is or how the Safe Haven Act protects them. The results were very poor, displaying that only 29 percent of residents had even heard of a safe haven and only 7 percent could describe one. Therefore, there is no reason for supporters to be praising this act when it has not accomplished anything thus …show more content…

With the countless problems they encounter later in life, it is evident that lawmakers did not consider the future of these children. With continued research, it has been proven that abandoned children face many hardships such as, anxiety, self-esteem issues and attachment problems (Brannagan, 2013). Brannagan explains children will have a hard time fitting in with social norms, because they are unable to make relationships as well as a normal child. This is all due to the fact of abandonment faced by the children at such a young stage in life. The children develop serious trust issues with all people; the main reason it is so hard to interact with others. Trust problems are not the sole hardship these children face due to abandonment. The self-esteem issues children face are overwhelming as it is explained by Brannagan. They believe they have virtually no self-worth making it difficult to get up each morning to go about their day. The solution to decreasing emotionally disabled children is to eliminate the Safe Surrender

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