You’d think that there wouldn’t be a Great Debate here, but apparently there is. A woman in Denver left her days-old baby either inside or underneath (reports vary) a trash-dumpster behind a resturant. Now she wants the kid back. People are actually considering doing this!
The woman attempted to murder her child. She didn’t leave the kid where he was likely to be found. The baby was extremely lucky. What if a trash-truck had emptied the dumpster? What if someone had tossed a heavy bag of groceries inside, crushing the kid? How is this different from putting the kid at the edge of a busy highway and letting the kid do a live-action version of FROGGER? At the very least she’s criminally negligent and guilty of gross child abuse and neglect.
I understand about post-birth hormonal changes and post-birth depression, but when it’s compounded by a certain level of stupidity it stops being a factor for me. If the woman had left her kid at a fire-house, or a hospital, or even INSIDE the resturant, rather than the dumpster behind it, I’d say that with councelling, she could be considered for reuniting with the baby. But to consider returning the baby to a woman who attempted to murder him…
This is fairly common, no? I mean often when mothers attempt harm to their children, the goal is to reunite them, NOT to protect the child. The logic behind this is completely lost on me.
First, the dumpster was in an alley. I don’t know how this person figures that a back-alley, under/behind/inside a dumpster (I keep hearing differing accounts) counts as “a public place where he would be found quickly”. Also, other stories I’ve heard say that the mother left the infant at sundown, or soon after. If it was 62 degrees when the baby was left, it wouldn’t be for long, not in Denver in the winter.
The baby was taken care of until the abandonment, but was only a day old?
There isn’t??? Left near a dumpster. Which are not the most sanitary of places. A place that can attract dogs and rats and other vermin. Where the person who found the baby might not be the type to alert the authorities, if you know what I mean.
Isn’t 62 degrees a bit too chilly for a newborn? Are there different standards in the Denver area?
Actually, it doesn’t have to be THAT cold for an adult human to die of hypothermia. The symptoms can set in when it’s around 55 degrees if you’re not properly dressed. So I wondered this too…isn’t 62 pretty extreme for a newborn?
If I’m not mistaken, the real issue here is whether it’s best to try to educate the mother and keep the family together, or break up the family for the protection of the child. I’ve always leaned heavily toward the latter. But since this story is so cryptic, it’s kind of difficult to tell if I should be completely outraged or not. So I will remain outraged until further notice.
The people I feel sorry for are the foster families in these situations. I’ve heard so many stories of loving, doting foster parents desperately trying to adopt a child while DCFS is working against them to return the child to his/her crack addicted, abusive mother.
The story states that THIS mother was “under a lot of stress.” I guess a reasonable reaction to parenting stress these days is abandonment. I wonder why my parents never thought of it?
I’d think so, and again, even if it was 62[sup]o[/sup] when she left it, it wasn’t 62[sup]o[/sup] for long. It gets cold fast in Denver at night. And according to a friend who’s reading this over my shoulder, the kid wasn’t found 'till dawn by the resturant’s owner. I’m stunned that the baby could have survived this.
If there are different standards, I’ve never heard of 'em.
One other addition: In Denver, a law was recently passed (I believe) that said if a parent abandons a baby at a fire-station or hospital, there would be no criminal charges brought. The idea was to prevent stuff like this.
I just found another, earlier stories. Apparently the kid wasn’t found 'till 10:30 in the morning, but I’ve still heard reports that the kid was abandoned the previous night. Also, the location where the kid was abandoned was given in this story and it’s not the best section of town to be in a back alley. Colfax and Gaylord isn’t too bad, but less than a mile away are a number of fairly seedy bars, strip joints and “adult” theaters. The alleys in that area aren’t good.
The optimal temperature range for a newborn is 97.5 to 99 F. Enviornment should be at least 70 degrees with no drafts and the baby’s skin dry before cold stress causes baby to use more oxygen and glucose than he has to otherwise. Baby’s larger surface area compared to his weight allows him to lose body heat four times faster than an adult. A 2 C drop in enviornmental temp causes a full term, healthy newborn to double his oxygen demand, throwing baby into a metabolic acidotic state. A preterm baby can’t regulate his own body temp ----not enough brown adipose, and no shivering reflex. In other times and places, unwanted babies were left exposed to the elements, knowing that the loss of heat would soon kill them. The disrespect for their humanity by throwing them in a dumpster to die alone enrages and sickens me.
Whatever happened to the Good Olde Days when women would abandon their babies in baskets on church steps, with a note pinned to them reading, “Please take care of little Euphemia?”
These modern kids with their Dumpsters . . . sheesh!
Well, J., you could also abandon Little Euphemia in her basket on the doorstep of a wealthy childless couple, who will raise her as their own, and then you can peek through the window as she’s getting married, till the mean cop tells you to “move along, there, nothin’ t’ see.”
How any mother can do the horrible things to a newborn that these such people do is beyond me. So far, this case, is the worst case I have ever heard of in this issue.
Do you have cites for that, Cyn? I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I have 3 kids and in each case we were told by doctors and nurses “Dress the baby for any given weather situation as you would dress yourself”. We were explicitly told that a full term, healthy baby has a fully developed hypothalamus and can regulate its body temp as well as an adult. We were further told that most parents tend to over-clothe their newborn and keep them warmer than necessary.
sojourn26, that was an awful story! I feel so nauseous right now. Regardless of whether or not the baby was alive, that was just plain disgusting and wrong. That girl deserves to be locked up for the rest of her life!
As for the second link that Fenris provided, it seems they are trying to invoke sympathy for the mother. I feel no sympathy for this woman and I hope she doesn’t get this baby back.
Babys are more hardy than you might think.
Just a few weeks ago (27/02/01) a 13 month old baby in Canada survived despite being exposed for several hours in a bitterly cold winter night wearing only her nappy.
She was nearly “frozen solid” after her night out in the open at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit). Paramedics were unable to insert a breathing tube into her mouth because it was frozen shut.
Of course I wouldn’t think its the best think to do to leave kids lying around outside on cold nights.
Looking at tossing babies into dumpsters as wrong is a very narrow-minded and bigoted point of view. I’m sure you as a person do many things that baby tossers might find contemptible, and you wouldn’t like it they mislabelled you with a bunch of stereotypical mischaracterizations.
The question isn’t whether baby tossing is wrong, the question is if whether its wrong for you.
Deciding if you are going to toss your baby into a dumpster or not is an intensely personal issue, and it’s wrong of you to make judgements about people just because you don’t happen to agree with their decision.
What right do you have to inflict your own personal high and mighty moral code of conduct on another?
Why do you get to tell people what to do?
Do you think tossing a baby into a dumpster is an easy choice?
If a baby tosser wants your input they’ll ask you. Until then you should shut up and mind your own business.
