Last month, a mother from Michigan, drove her 13 year old son to Nebraska and left him there. As we discussed in class, Nebraska is the only state that has a safe-haven law that allows parents (or anyone else) to leave children at hospitals within the state until they are 18 years old. Government officials in Nebraska, according to an article in Tacoma Washington's News Tribune, say this law "should be used only for children in immediate danger." What does this mean? Why not put simply put your child or children up for adoption, instead of abandoning them? According to the article, an out of work, widower named Gary Slaton has abandoned 9 out of his 10 children at hospitals in Nebraska because he felt overwhelmed. Is this right? Since the law took effect in July, 18 children from states outside of Nebraska have been taken to and abandoned in Nebraska. Personally, I think that this is awful. How can a parent do this to their child? How can our government allow this to happen? There is a reason that the other 49 states do not implement this law, so then why doesn't the government interfere and strike it down in Nebraska?
Upon reading about Nebraska's safe-haven law, I wondered if it violated the Constitution or if taking this law away would be a violation of the Constitution. After looking over our Bill of Rights sheet from class, I felt that this issue related to two different amendments. First, I thought that the 8th amendment had a lot to do with Nebraska's safe-haven law. According to the article, many of the children or teenagers who are abandoned in Nebraska had uncontrollable behavioral problems. Abandonment is thus the parent's form of punishment. Does this violate the 8th amendment then? Can this be considered cruel and unusual punishment? I believe it is a very unusual punishment and that it is also cruel to leave a child in a different state due to behavioral problems. So yes, in my opinion it does violate the 8th amendment. Or is it a parents right to leave their child in Nebraska? Could this be considered part of the ninth amendment as a given right? Personally, I think that leaving your child in a different state is a cruel and unusual punishment. What do you think?
1 comment:
Wow, thats really interesting that you were able to find an article about this. I think its a very bizarre law, but in class we talked about state versus federal legislation. I don't think its the fault of the constitution, or that it violates its amendments, but it is very odd and controversial that Nebraska has this law. I think that the age of the safe haven law in Nebraska should be no where close to 18; that part of it is completely ridiculous. Also, maybe certain information should be taken as to why the person is abandoning their child in order to make the parent think it through. I think part of the problem is that its so easy to abandon a child.
Post a Comment