Safe surrender of newborns: a legal tool to prevent infanticide and dangerous abandonment

Some mothers face pregnancy or childbirth in conditions of extreme vulnerability. Fear, social pressure, poverty, a lack of family support and attempts to conceal a pregnancy can create situations in which desperate decisions become possible.

The article focuses on cases of infanticide and dangerous abandonment involving newborns, often during the first hours or days of life. It presents safe surrender as a legal tool intended to prevent those outcomes and offer a safer alternative in circumstances where a mother cannot care for her child.