First infant in Kentucky surrendered anonymously at fire station Safe Haven 'baby box'

[cab67]

31. It would probably depend on timing.

Many (most?) states have laws that won't allow reversing an adoption after a certain amount of time. Ostensibly, this is to avoid disrupting the child's life by removing it from the family that raised it since a very early age. State and/or local child welfare agencies made a mistake and wrongly severed one or both biological parents' parental rights? The biological father wasn't given adequate notice? The bio mother was convicted of a crime against her child, but was later exonerated and declared innocent? It wouldn't matter - after a legally-set length of time has elapsed, the adoption is permanent.

(I could be wrong, but I read somewhere that they might not even reverse an adoption if the baby was abducted as a newborn and passed on to adoptive parents through informal networks. I desperately hope I'm wrong about that.)

There are perfectly good reasons for a woman to anonymously put her baby up for adoption - if the pregnancy results from rape or incest, for example, or if the father is known to be violent and abusive. But there are also not-so-good reasons.

Some states - Utah comes to mind - are infamous for having inadequate notification procedures, meaning an out-of-state father might have his parental rights terminated before he's even aware the child has been born. I'm not talking about rapists or abusive men, either - I'm talking about men who want to raise their child, but are denied the opportunity.

It's not a simple thing. I can see the charitable rationale behind these drop-off stations, but there has to be some sort of oversight.

Please note - I am NOT criticizing adoption. I'm raising an adopted child myself. I just think there should be diligence way above and beyond what's expected in other legal procedures.