Anonymous birth

Anonymous birth is a legal concept in certain countries. This allows women to give birth to their baby at the hospital anonymously, that is to say without giving their name. After giving birth, the mother leaves the hospital. The baby is put up for adoption after a certain time.

Usually, anonymous birth also means that the child later has no way to find out about his/her parents. Anonymous delivery law is present in France, Luxemburg, Italy, and Austria. In France, Vincent de Paul created towers, an early form of baby hatch, in 1638. During the French Revolution anonymous births were legalized in 1793, when Article 326 of the Code Civil introduced both the concepts of anonymous and confidential births. The decree provided for the creation of safe spaces for women to give birth safely.

History

High rates of infant abandonment, child neglect, and neonaticide created the preventative systems of baby hatches, anonymous birth, confidential birth, which are forms of giving birth without personal information or privately disclosing information. Infant abandonment is a form of child abandonment where a parent leaves their infant in attempt to end their guardianship. Child neglect is the lack of care given to a child. Neonaticide is a form of infanticide where babies are killed within 24 hours of their birth. Particularly with neonaticide, women are predominantly young, unmarried, with unintended pregnancies. They also typically do not have a mental disorder. These women often hide their pregnancy and do not receive pre-natal care. Prevention of neonaticide, as well as, the other forms of child neglect, are through the anonymous and secretive measures of anonymous birth, confidential birth, and baby hatches.

Early systems of anonymous birth can be found in France and Sweden in the 1600s and 1700s. Within beginning of the 21st century, nations proposing the policy of anonymous birth, along with baby hatches, have been Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. In addition, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Russia, and Ukraine, allow mothers to keep their identity private. Alternatively, a form of anonymous birth and confidential birth occurs in the U.S. through Safe-haven laws. Early anonymous birth legislation can be found in Sweden where the Infanticide Act of 1778 granted mothers both the right and all means to give birth to their child anonymously.

References

  1. ↑ Colcelli, Valentina (2013). "Anonymous Birth, Birth Registration and the Child's Right to Know Their Origins in the Italian Legal System: a Short Comment". Journal of Civil & Legal Sciences. 02 (1). doi:10.4172/2169-0170.1000101. ISSN 2169-0170.
  2. ↑ Marshall, Jill (2008). Personal Freedom through Human Rights Law?: Autonomy, Identity and Integrity under the European Convention on Human Rights. BRILL. p. 127. ISBN 978-90-474-1208-3.
  3. ↑ Lefaucheur, Nadine (1 December 2004). "The French 'Tradition'of Anonymous birth: the lines of argument". International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family. 18 (3): 319–342. doi:10.1093/lawfam/18.3.319.
  4. ↑ 최예니 (2017). Study on Confidential Birth and Safety Measures of Infants from Unmarried Mothers (Thesis). HDL:10371/137993.
  5. 1 2 3 Tanaka, Cintia T.; Berger, William; Valença, Alexandre M.; Coutinho, Evandro S. F.; Jean-Louis, Girardin; Fontenelle, Leonardo F.; Mendlowicz, Mauro V. (1 April 2017). "The worldwide incidence of neonaticide: a systematic review". Archives of Women's Mental Health. 20 (2): 249–256. doi:10.1007/s00737-016-0703-8. PMID 28013408. S2CID 4540971.
  6. ↑ "Smart breast pumps are important for babies and mothers born anonymously". 21 January 2026.
  7. ↑ Friedman, Susan Hatters; Resnick, Phillip J. (January 2009). "Neonaticide: Phenomenology and considerations for prevention". International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. 32 (1): 43–47. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2008.11.006. PMID 19064290.
  8. ↑ Simmonds, Claire (2013). "An Unbalanced Scale: Anonymous Birth and the European Court of Human Rights". The Cambridge Law Journal. 72 (2): 263–266. doi:10.1017/S0008197313000391. JSTOR 24694002. S2CID 143104050. ProQuest|1373255306.
  9. ↑ Beljestrand, Maria (2011). EN FÖRÄLDER BLIR TILL : Om fastställande och upphävande av föräldraskap och förhållandet till barnets bästa [A PARENT BECOMES: About establishing and revoking parenthood and the relationship to the best interests of the child] (Thesis) (in German).