http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7729423.stm#text
By Lucy Wilkins
BBC News
With the best intentions in the world, Nebraska lawmakers wanted to prevent harm coming to unwanted babies abandoned by their parents, the so-called “dumpster babies”.
So, following other US states, they voted for a “safe haven” law.
They passed the briefest of legislation - just two sentences - protecting parents from prosecution if they left a child at a designated hospital.
But it was that single word “child” which had unexpected consequences for them.
It was widely assumed to mean any person under the age of 18, and so within two months more than 20 parents had abandoned children - not their newborn babies, but their growing teenagers.
