We’ve all heard of “safe haven” laws that allow parents to abandon a child, usually a baby under age 1, to authorities without being punished. But Nebraska legislators passed an unusual variation that allows parents to abandon not just babies, but children and teens up to age 19 – never expecting people really would. Ahem. In what adoption expert Adam Pertman calls the “worst-case scenario of unintended consequences,” at least 16 children and teens have been abandoned in the last three months. On Wednesday evening alone, three fathers abandoned their children at hospitals in Omaha. One was a widower who left nine of his ten children, ages 1 to 17, saying he couldn’t handle parenthood anymore. Relatives have since contacted the hospital, offering to take the siblings in and saying the father never called them for help.

We’re speechless. Your thoughts?