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INFERTILITY   ADOPTION   POST-ADOPTION   FAMILY TREE   Adoption Resource Central    Heart of Adoption Articles to inspire   International adoption guide   You can order Family Helper publications		Austria's "anonymous births" BY ROBIN HILBORN, Family Helper editor
		(May 16, 2001) Under Austria's system of "anonymous birth", women can give birth in a hospital free of charge and without stating their identity, so that the baby can be offered for adoption. Mothers have eight weeks to reclaim their child before it is available for adoption. Authorities hope the system will offer women a good alternative to abandoning their babies on the street, or even killing their unwanted child. Another initiative in Austria is the "baby nest", a hole in the wall of a hospital leading into a warm cot, where mothers can safely abandon their unwanted children. France has also offered women the chance to deliver babies anonymously, a practice criticised because children cannot trace their parents. For more, see news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,2008463%255E1702,00.html ________________________________________ You may reproduce this item with the credit: "Source: Family Helper (www.familyhelper.net)"