North Carolina, like many states, allows a parent, or parents, to give up an infant under seven days of age to a “safe haven,” no questions asked and without facing arrest or other penalties for abandonment. The law is intended to save the lives of infants that might otherwise be abandoned in garbage dumpsters or toilets.

For the Safe Haven law to save lives, however, physicians and other health care practitioners need to know about the law and help spread the word.