Judge Considers Abandoned Girl's Fate
Originally published by the Detroit Free Press, May 16, 2001
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A judge is expected to decide within a week the status of the parental rights of a woman who left her newborn girl at a Detroit-area hospital and disappeared.
Oakland County Family Judge Patrick Brennan heard arguments Tuesday in the case of Baby Girl Brown, who was abandoned by her mother at Providence Hospital in Southfield on Feb. 14, then placed with a couple who hopes to adopt her.
Attorneys concentrated on whether hospital personnel at Providence provided the mother with enough information to know that she could retrieve the child within 28 days if she changed her mind.
Under Michigan's safe harbor laws, which went into effect Jan. 1, mothers may leave newborns at hospitals, police stations and fire stations without fear of being charged with neglect.
Brennan had reservations about whether the hospital personnel followed the statute, which requires they make a reasonable effort to inform the mother of her rights and to provide her with a pamphlet explaining the law.
The mother, who provided a false name, left within three hours of giving birth and was not told she could reclaim her child within 28 days. "Just so it is clear, I don't find any fault with what this woman did," Brennan said. "My concern is whether she was informed that her parental rights were going to be terminated."
Amy Peterman, an attorney appointed to represent the baby's interests, argued that the hospital staff met the law's requirement of making a "reasonable effort" to explain the mother's rights and that she made her intentions clear. The hospital's efforts were thwarted when the mother unexpectedly left.
"Her actions and her words said, "I don't want this child,"' Peterman told the Detroit Free Press.
Should the judge deny the termination under the new law, prosecutors could file a neglect petition that could ultimately end the mother's rights.
Gail Mazey, attorney for Catholic Social Services of Oakland County, which temporarily placed the child with a couple, said all the law requires is that reasonable efforts are made to inform the parent.
Mazey said efforts by the hospital staff to get the mother to stay in the hospital to speak with a social worker were reasonable, Mazey said.
"She made it quite clear that she had no intention of taking the baby home," Mazey told The Detroit News.
The infant's prospective new parents were present Tuesday along with the sleeping baby, who was concealed under a blanket in an infant carrier.
