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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Hetero What to Expect When You're Expecting

Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 10:59 AM

The body of a baby boy was found Monday by authorities combing through 60 tons of trash at a dump site near Tacoma, and a teenager believed to be the mother was held on $500,000 bail.

Investigators from the Port Angeles police, Pierce County sheriff's office, Tacoma police and a State Patrol crime laboratory spotted the tiny body about 2:10 p.m. as heavy equipment was used to comb through the partially compacted garbage.

The impulse to hide pregnancy from family—particularly from pious head-in-the-sand parents who condemn condoms because they live under the delusion that teenagers don't have sex—is understandable. And avoiding an abortion because your family calls it murder or because you just don't want an abortion is also understandable. And wanting to jettison your baby for adoption because you can't take care of it is also totally understandable. But abandoning a baby (that may have been drowned first) in the trash: not understandable.

Washington state passed a law in 2002 that allows a parent to anonymously transfer a newborn within three days to an "employee, volunteer, or medical staff member of the hospital" or a reasonably competent "firefighter, volunteer, or emergency medical technician at a fire station" without any legal liability. Despite the law, teens still abandon kids in places where the baby could die, like the girl in Federal Way who left her baby in front of a church in September. That's close, but that's not a transfer to living, breathing human at a hospital or fire station, so prosecutors charged her for abandonment. Now the prosecutors in the Tacoma baby case may charge the mother with murder. The problem is this baby-saving law doesn't work unless folks know about it. So, if you know a teenager—especially one living with a morally skewed family—please let her know.

Comments (17) RSS

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Actually, she didn't *just* abandon her kid in a dumpster---she drowned it in a toilet first.

Posted by Toe Tag on January 6, 2009 at 11:00 AM

It's sad that this story will likely be heard by more teens in her situation than will the message that they have a legal way to give up their kid.

Are they going to charge her with murder or ignorance or panic?

Posted by Urgutha Forka on January 6, 2009 at 11:11 AM

The door step thing, its so Hollywood. Where else is it coming from?

blame the schools... that little bit of nug should be talked about. seems like it ain't.

blame the State... what about Public Service Announcements? Buzz driving is DRUNK driving... good. Why not PSA this law... ladies find a fire station, not a dumpster.

Posted by Phenics on January 6, 2009 at 11:12 AM

I think the law you describe about surrendering newborns is useless, a sop to make people (like you) feel better about teans' situations, useless because there is no systematic education about it in schools.

Posted by cracked on January 6, 2009 at 11:15 AM

What kind of person, even a young person, kills and or endangers a baby? I doubt this is someone who, even if told she could drop the baby off, would really care enough to do so. This is an issue of empathy and compassion. These are taught. A child must be taught to care for others, to have sympathy, to reject harming others. Her father is in jail and he's the one who is at greatest fault here.

Posted by Vince on January 6, 2009 at 11:27 AM

I work in social services and wasn't aware of that law. Clearly not well publicized.

Posted by Ack. on January 6, 2009 at 11:28 AM

If only we had some kind of institution that could disseminate information to children and teenagers... something with mandatory daily attendance and adults in authority positions from which they could "teach" this kind of thing

Posted by feh on January 6, 2009 at 11:39 AM

Hey, I got a great idea!

Let's have federally-funded abstinence programs so teens can drown more babies!

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 6, 2009 at 12:03 PM

Popular culture (Hollywood) has educated everyone about how to abandon babies on church doorsteps - and really, inside the hospital or fire station isn't that much of a stretch. But you're talking about teens and young women who typically are in denial about the pregnancy and have concealed it.

The safe haven laws haven't made a dent in infant abandonment. Those who are inclined to abandon (or drown and discard) still do. It's not a matter of education and information. These are stressed and unbalanced women and, not surprisingly, they do crazy stuff.

Posted by Spokalou on January 6, 2009 at 12:12 PM

We cannot blame the girl (also technically a child) in this situation. Did you read the rest of the article? She had been sent by her mother to live her father (a man well known by police) in a house with several other male adults. The father of the baby is probably another adult. The family is obviously fucked -- where was CPS someone else to help this girl out of a shit situation?

Posted by Sarah on January 6, 2009 at 12:42 PM

... CPS [or] someone else...

Posted by Sarah on January 6, 2009 at 12:43 PM

Actually Dominic, it is understandable.

Parents and schools show great variance in the quality and quantity of sex education they provide, from science-based comprehensive sex education to batshit-crazy religious voodoo. Also, teenagers don't make decisions like adults do - that's why we consider them to be minors and prevent them from smoking, drinking, having sex, driving, voting, etc. Put those both together and you have a recipe for bad choices.

I'd be curious to find out what level of sex education she received from her school and parents - can you find out?

Posted by blank12357 on January 6, 2009 at 12:56 PM

@5: infanticide is fairly common in apes. so common that there's a name for it: infanticide.

Posted by Max Solomon on January 6, 2009 at 1:14 PM

@10,11 - they had cutbacks.

Does that help?

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 6, 2009 at 1:15 PM

Postpartum psychosis is an extreme case of postpartum depression which can lead to infanticide. It is rare, but is exacerbated by things like a preceding mood disorder or a traumatic event -- like, say, giving birth to a baby alone on the floor of a bedroom or bathroom. Morals have little to do with it.

Too bad girls can't go to the doctor and/or hospital without involving her parents, because that might be a lot more effective at preventing infanticide than letting her drop the kid off afterward.

Posted by Erica T. on January 6, 2009 at 2:13 PM

Perhaps she thought of it as no worse than a late term abortion, not actually murder. Panic and fear make people do weird shit.

Posted by Y.F. on January 6, 2009 at 4:54 PM

@14 -- exactly. so there's the problem, not the girl.

Posted by Sarah on January 7, 2009 at 12:12 AM