Beginning next week, desperate mothers will have a safe place to abandon their newborn babies at St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver.
The so-called Angel's Cradle program is scheduled to open on May 3 at St. Paul's emergency department.
The idea behind the cradle is to prevent incidents like the discovery of a dead newborn in the Delta landfill earlier this year.
"Sadly, infant abandonment is a fact of life," Providence Health Care said in a notice to staff.
"Sometimes a newborn is unsafely abandoned because women do not have another option. The Angel's Cradle offers an alternative."
The cradle, set in a protected area near the emergency entrance, is set up to automatically trigger an alarm 30 seconds after a baby is placed inside.
After the alarm has sounded, doctors at the hospital will assess the baby's health, and put the child in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development after any necessary medical treatment is complete.
Security and staff members will not approach new mothers or ask for their names, and Vancouver police will not pursue charges against women who use the cradle.
Const. Lindsey Houghton told ctvbc.ca that this kind of program isn't a concern for police, as long as any abandoned babies haven't been mistreated.
"From a criminal side of things, if an infant or a baby is healthy and being cared for, then the police wouldn't care."
