Critics call it an abomination, little more than a baby recycling center. She and other supporters of the pilot program say it will save the lives of hundreds of unwanted infants. Last year, in Germany more than 130 newborn babies were found dumped in trash bins and cardboard boxes, left to die by desperate or disturbed mothers. Thirty of them died. The United States is also trying to battle the problem.
Experts estimate twice as many infants are abandoned in America than in Germany.
An infamous case in Delaware in 1996 brought worldwide attention to the problem when two teenagers, Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, were convicted for leaving their newborn son to die in a dumpster outside a motel Germany's baby bank program is an attempt to give parents like them an alternative, the ability to give away their baby safely and anonymously. In Colorado a baby only a few hours old and left abandoned on a store shelf was discovered in time to survive. A baby boy in Kentucky left in a trash container in front of a pawn shop also was found alive. And in California motorists found an infant who had been stuffed inside a plastic bag and left behind at a parking lot. Options for Young Mothers Juergen Moysich works at the Sternipark Clinic in Hamburg, which is trying out the program.