“Safe Haven” Laws and Murdered Babies

On December 23, 2009 – just two days before Christmas – Stanton, California, police discovered the body of a full-term infant in a trash dumpster behind a restaurant.  As of this writing, they have not yet released a cause of death but it does appear that the baby was born alive.  Sadly, this type of tragedy occurs all too often and media reporters are always amazed at these incidents in light of the so-called “Safe Haven” laws.

“Save Haven” laws have been around for more than a decade.  In most states, as in California, a person can bring an infant to either a hospital emergency room or a fire station and drop the baby off without question or identification.  These laws were designed to prevent exactly what happened in Stanton…..the death of an unwanted baby.  So, one might ask, if all a parent has to do is take the infant to a “Safe Haven” location and give the child up, why would anyone kill an infant and risk going to jail?  The answer is frighteningly simple; these parents simply do not care about their baby.

In a previous blog I mentioned that one of the difficulties I have with students in my “Study of Murder” class is convincing them that there really are evil people in this world who care for absolutely no one but themselves.  These individuals will break into houses, steal from their relatives, and rob anyone, anyplace, and anytime if it is in their own perceived best interests.  Some of these evil persons get themselves pregnant and the prospect of having to deal with the care and feeding of a baby just does not fit into their plans.

Take the case of Melissa Drexler.  In 1997, Melissa went into labor while driving to her high school Senior Prom.  While at the prom, she went into the bathroom where she delivered her baby.  She then placed the baby in a trash bag, knotted the bag closed, and threw it into a trash dumpster.  She then went back to her prom.  In the statement she read at her sentencing she stated, “I knew I was pregnant.  I concealed the pregnancy from everyone.” She then went on to describe how the baby was born alive in the bathroom. “I knowingly took the baby out of the toilet and wrapped a series of garbage bags around the baby. And I was further aware that what I was doing at the time…would most certainly result in the death of the baby.”

In other words, Melissa’s High School Senior Prom was more important to her than the life of the baby she had carried for nine months.  In November of 2001, after having served just three years of a 15-year sentence, Melissa Drexler was released on parole.

It is very difficult for the average person to believe, especially a parent, that anyone could possibly harm a child.  That’s because the average person would not intentionally do so.  But evil people would.  And evil people do.

People (mostly biological mothers) who kill newborns do so in most cases because the life of the child would be a burden to them and simply does not fit into their personal future plans.  They have no difficulty in murdering their child because they have not formed any emotional attachments to the baby.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  They usually want the pregnancy to end, not to enjoy the birth of their child, but to put an end to the inconveniences they have suffered throughout their pregnancy.

Lest I am misunderstood, please understand that if the life of just ONE BABY is saved through “Safe Haven” laws, then the laws have been successful.  The sad reality, though, is that the parent who brings their baby to an emergency room or to a fire station to give up their child probably would have found another way for the child to survive and be cared for had the “Safe Haven” law not existed.  We know this because they took efforts to ensure the child’s survival.  They cared for the baby enough, at least, to try to find a place for the child to live and grow up.

One of the basic tenets of criminal profiling, and the one stated by Criminal Profiler John Douglas over and over is that “Behavior reflects personality.”  In the case of the parent who brings their baby to a “Safe Haven” their intentions are clear – please care for my child.  In the case of the parent who kills a newborn and tosses the body into a trash dumpster, their intentions are just as clear – let me get rid of something that I no longer need in my life.

I hope and pray that in 2010 there are fewer and fewer discarded innocent lives.

As always, I welcome your responses.