Thursday, April 9, 2009

Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself

From an short note in today's Spokesman Review

Spokane-area hospitals decided last month to discontinue the practice of sending birth announcements to media outlets, saying they feared such information could be used to abduct babies.

Um, so people are going to forget that most babies are born in hospitals? How many babies were born in Spokane area hospitals in, say, the last five years? And of those, how many were abducted? I don't recall any and I couldn't find any using the Google.

But it only takes one to make the headlines. Or create a lawsuit.

I think a better reason would be to let the family choose to make the announcement, which is essentially what they're doing now, rather than heighten our fears. Well, at least there's no waiver of liability on the Review's birth announcement form that says they can't be held responsible for any abductions that result from the announcement.

2 comments:

Nick said...

According to this article:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/jan/11/abduction-fear-cancels-birth-notices/

The answer is 4 abductions in 25 years related to birth announcements.

I can understand situations where there is a custody dispute, but it seems to me those situations would be resolved, as you say, by letting the parents choose whether they want the hospital to send out a birth announcement.

Having the hospital send the birth announcement is also a nice little courtesy service to provide to people who are about to have their hands very full.

Hank Greer said...

Thank you, Nick.