The Client With No Name

Yesterday I appeared on behalf of Baby Doe. Baby Doe has no name because she was left as a newborn at a local hospital. Under the "Safe Surrender" law, the mother escaped prosecution by leaving the baby at a designated site, and the child entered the dependency system as "Baby Doe." At yesterday's hearing, the parental rights of the unknown parents were terminated, and the adoption process officially began. Within a couple of months, Baby Doe will not only have two loving parents, but she will also (officially) have a name.

I try not to be emotionally affected by dependency proceedings, but two things tested my lawyerly objectivity during the hearing. One was when, instead of having the bailiff summon the parties into the courtroom in the customary manner by hollering the child's name in the lobby, the judge asked the social worker to go find the foster parents. The other moment was when the judge asked me to pass the Kleenex to the prospective adoptive parents seated behind me, thus forcing me to turn around and witness their tears of joy.

After I left the courtroom, I couldn't help but think about a tragically contrasting case which Comrade Nebur and I were tangentially involved in last fall. In that case, the mother left newborn "Baby TM" under a motel room sink to slowly die in the dark.

Critics of the Safe Surrender program say that it is largely ineffective and encourages parental irresponsibility. But should the Safe Surrender program be abandoned at the risk of replacing Baby Does with Baby TMs?

There is no way to know if the mother of Baby TM knew about the Safe Surrender law, or if she would have acted any differently had she known. Nor is there any way to know what the mother of Baby Doe would have done without the protection of the law. Nevertheless, my very subjective, and (yes, I admit it) emotional experience with these two cases tells me that the Safe Surrender law is a good law, and that we should be doing more to make people aware of it.*

* This county is one of a very few in California which have nothing posted on the internet to assist pregnant mothers contemplating abandoning a newborn.