LAS VEGAS -- Nearly 10 years have passed since Nevada put a Safe Haven Bill on the books. The law that allows parents to legally abandon their newborns at places like hospitals, police and fire stations and urgent care centers.
Supporters insist the law saves lives, but they worry a lack of awareness results in too many missed opportunities.
Metro Crime Prevention Specialist Carol Ferranti has made a career out of helping the public to help the police fight crime. It is a professional obligation that for Ferranti is also personal.
"This is not only a crime, this is a human life," she said.
In May of 2001, Ferranti, then a coroner's investigator, responded to the Harrah's Hotel and Casino where a recycling worker discovered the body of a baby boy wrapped in plastic grocery bags as he sorted through the trash.
"It brought light to another life -- a possible life -- we don't know. A possible life that could've been someone's child and grandson and was just tossed in the garbage," she said.
The loss of Baby Doe Harrah's, along with more than a dozen other abandoned infants, prompted legislators to pass Nevada's Safe Haven Bill. The law allows parents to leave a baby up to 30-days-old at a hospital, police or fire station or urgent care facility without criminal consequences.
"It can work," said Assemblywoman April Mastroluca.
Mastroluca partnered with the Junior League to help to pass the law. Though no one keeps official statistics, the state counts the number of Safe Haven success stories at three. The total of missed opportunities, according to rough estimates, is at least double that.
"I get sad and then I get angry because it didn't have to be that way. The mother had a chance to do the right thing and is it our fault because we didn't tell her, or is it her fault because that was her choice? And those are the questions that I'll never know the answers to," said Mastroluca.
Media campaigns launched with the law expired shortly thereafter and now it rarely gets a mention except when another baby dies. To increase awareness, Assemblywoman Mastroluca hopes to find a private donor to fund future publicity, while Ferranti shares her personal story and her plea with a public audience.
Under Nevada's Safe Haven law, a parent may legally and anonymously surrender an infant 30-days-old or younger. The parent must leave the child with a person at the facility or on the property in a manner that will not threaten the child's safety or the parent can call 911 and someone will be dispatched to quietly pick up the child.
Provided the baby has not been abused, the parent does not have to provide any information and will not be prosecuted. The infant will be medically screened and placed under the care of Child Protective Services for later adoption.
