This year, in July, Nebraska lawmakers passed a “safe-haven” law allowing the abandonment of children up to the age of 18 in hospitals in order for the state to take care of them, under the parents’ request. Unfortunately, the unique law has given rise to an unforeseen number of dropoffs since it came into effect, at least 16 children having been abandoned until now. Consequently, officials are currently considering revising the aforementioned legal measure, so as to forestall a future increase of such proportion.

Nebraska Senator Arnie Stuthman stated that lawmakers needed to set a maximum age for children abandoned in state care, adding that he was unsure whether the matter could stand postponing until the Legislature assembled in January 2009.

The “safe-haven” law permits parents to hand over their children to state-certified medical centers. Even though it aimed at protecting infants, the legal measure’s language was amended to contain the word “child,” which was left undefined. Therefore, many interpreted the law as referring to all minors, thus including all children under the age of 19.

So far, the most troubling case of parental abandonment occurred Wednesday, when widower Gary Staton dropped off nine of his 10 children at the Creighton University Medical Center.

Staton, who is currently unemployed, stated that he was overburdened by his responsibilities, which prompted him to leave his five sons and four of his daughters in state care.

In an unrelated incident, a 18-year-old boy was reported to have turned himself in Tuesday at a hospital in Grand Island, Nebraska.