B.C.'s legal abandonment program receives first baby

The “Angel’s Cradle” project allows parents to anonymously leave unwanted babies at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital.

Legal abandonment programs are common in the U.S., and are designed to deter desperate mothers from endangering the safety of unwanted babies. But in Canada, only B.C. has initiated such a program, and in July it received its first patient. The case was kept secret until now. The program consists of a bassinet on the other side of a small door at St. Paul’s Hospital. Thirty seconds after a child is placed in the bassinet an alarm goes off, giving the parent enough time to leave anonymously. Supporters of the program say it saves lives, but critics argue it gives women an easy way out of motherhood. About one child a year is abandoned in B.C.