The Michigan Court of Appeals issued the very first
decision (published or unpublished) under the Safe Delivery of Newborn Act
(SDNA), MCL 712.1 et seq., which has existed since 2000.
Under
the SDNA, a parent can surrender a newborn to a hospital or emergency provider
within 3 days of birth and, after certain procedures are followed, the parental
rights of both surrendering parent and non-surrendering parent could be
terminated and child could be adopted. The SDNA was enacted to reduce the
number of newborns who were abandoned in dumpsters, public restrooms, and the
like, and as a way to save those babies’ lives and to help them achieve
permanency with a loving adoptive family. A majority of states have some form
of SDNA.
In
In re Miller Minors, newborn twins were born at the hospital, where the
mother surrendered them. As permitted by the statute, the mother (Surrendering
Parent) did not identify the father. Pursuant to the statute, the hospital
social worker attempted to learn as much as she could about both the
surrendering parent and non-surrendering parent-again where the surrendering
parent is not required to give any information. The hospital contacted an
adoption agency, who placed the twins with prospective adoptive parents.
Without
the name of the non-surrendering parent, the agency followed the statute and
published notice in a newspaper within 28 days of the surrender, in the county
where the twins were born. After 28 days of surrender and from notice, neither
the surrendering parent nor the non-surrendering parent came forward to claim
the children. Under the statute, the trial court must then terminate parental
rights of both surrendering and non-surrendering parent so the children can be
adopted.
In
Miller, more than 3 months after the time period for the agency to
provide publication notice, the Department of Vital Records returned a birth
certificate that named a “father” for the children. Presumably, the Department
of Vital Records included that name because there was some record the
surrendering parent had married this person, although it is unclear how the
Department of Vital Records would have known if the couple had divorced in
another state, whether the man died in another state, and so on. Notably,
effective January 18, 2018, the Legislature amended the Vital Records Act so
that birth certificates issued for safe surrenders would only identify the
parents as “unknown” and the newborn as “Baby Doe.” The Vital Records Act was
amended to increase surrendering parents’ use of the SDNA without fear of their
name or the non-surrendering parents’ name appearing on the birth certificate–
the idea being that more surrendering parents would safely surrender and thus
save more lives.
The
trial court in this case, however, concluded that the SDNA did not apply to
married parents because The Court of Appeals reversed and held that SDNA
applied to any kind of surrendering or non-surrendering parent, whether married
or not.
Labels: adoption agency, adoption appeal, birth certificate, MCL 712.1, Miller Minors, non-surrendering parent, Safe Delivery of Newborn Act, safe surrender Vital Records Act, social worker, surrendering parent