미국의 ‘Safe Haven Law’와 우리나라의 친생모 익명성 보장에 대한 연구

Recently, there are continuous articles in the newspaper on baby boxes which are used by parents to give up their children. Baby box is a vigorously debated issue not only because it may be criminalized as an act of infant abandonment or child abuse, but also because allowing parents to anonymously abandon their baby at a designated safe place may not necessarily be in the best interest of the child. In South Korea, recently, various efforts have been made to legislate the protection of the mother’s anonymity as a part of the process in solving the problem of child abandonment. One of such efforts include the bill for the special act on baby boxes. This paper reviews the Safe Haven Law of the US which legislates and enables the operation of the baby box system. Through reviewing the US legislation, this paper aims to provide a direction for relevant laws in South Korea in enacting the baby box system and protecting the anonymity of parents.