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Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
July 12, 2002
Section: Metro News
Edition: Home;
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Page: C1
Deserted babies generate debate on law
MARGARET NEWKIRK;
Staff
DeKalb County
police continued to troll through surveillance videotapes
from the DeKalb Medical Center on Thursday in an effort
to find and possibly prosecute whoever abandoned hour-old
twin boys in a restroom there Wednesday morning.
One of the twins died.
A state lawmaker, meanwhile, is outraged that police and child
welfare officials are considering prosecution.
Whoever left the twins probably saved one of their lives by
doing so, said state Rep. Judith Manning.
The Marietta Republican said the person followed the spirit,
if not the letter, of the Safe Places for Newborns Act.
Manning sponsored the law, which went into effect in May.
It makes it legal for parents to give up a newborn to a medical
facility equipped to care for it. The law also says the parents
are supposed to give the baby to an employee or volunteer
and leave a name.
The law is one of dozens adopted around the country over the
past three years, some of which allow exactly what happened
with the DeKalb twins.
Georgia's does not.
DeKalb police and child welfare officials say the law doesn't
protect the person who abandoned the twins, since he or she
didn't give the children to anyone.
"The law is certainly not intended for people to go in and
drop a baby in a bathroom," said Angie Edwards, program director
for the DeKalb Department of Family and Children Services.
"These children were just left wrapped up in a blanket on
the floor," she said.
Manning said the person was probably the twins' mother, probably
young, and had just given birth to two drastically underweight
infants eight weeks before she expected to.
"I can just imagine her fear. She wraps them in blankets,
and ignores her own health and safety, since she's just had
these babies and she's placed them in a hospital in an effort
to save their lives, and she's done it within an hour of giving
birth.
The DeKalb twins are believed to be the first babies abandoned
in a hospital since the law went into effect.
Hospital phones rang steadily Thursday, with callers wanting
to help or adopt the surviving twin, dubbed Jonathan Gabriel
by his nurses and now listed in good condition.
Copyright 2002
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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