Hastings Cent Rep
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Legislative strategies for reducing infant abandonment and neonaticide developed in response to a series of sensational cases that occurred in Texas in 1999. The media coverage of these cases implied that the incidence of the crime was increasing, and Texas legislators responded with a law permitting parents to anonymously surrender their newborn at designated locations such as hospitals. ⋯ These laws can trigger rapid cessation of parental rights and a fast-tracked adoption to a preapproved family, reflecting the legislators' assumption that it is better to permit struggling mothers to leave their children with well-intentioned strangers than to abandon the children or end their lives. These laws, however, suffer from several inadequacies.