STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1544-08

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

RE:   H.C.R. No. 284

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 284 entitled:

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO CONDUCT A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON IMPROVING HAWAII'S SAFE HAVEN LAW BY REQUIRING THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE NEWBORN CHILD AND PERSON PRESENTING THE NEWBORN CHILD TO SAFE HAVEN PERSONNEL BEFORE ACCEPTING THE NEWBORN CHILD AND THE EFFICACY OF SAFE HAVEN LAWS IN OTHER STATES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to seek the best practices for Hawaii's baby safe haven law and to have the department of human services report on their work since Act 7 of the 2007 Special Session was passed on July 10, 2007.

     The primary focus of this resolution is the health and safety of the child. Your Committee finds that if the life of a newborn baby is saved because the mother is able to safely surrender her baby at a hospital or other baby safe haven instead of abandoning the child in a life threatening situation, then this would accomplish its goal.

     Moreover, this concurrent resolution seeks to determine the best practices and to seek the feasibility of obtaining the identification of the parents and newborn baby prior to the safe surrender at a baby safe haven.

     The Department of Health opposed this concurrent resolution.

     Your Committee has amended the resolution by changing the title and contents of the resolutions to seek best practices from other states concerning their baby safe haven laws and to have the department of human services report their progress, if any, of ensuring the safety of newborn babies pursuant to the enactment of Act 7 of 2007 Special Session and to report said information to the Legislature no later than 20 days prior to the convening of the 2009 Legislative session.

     Additional amendments were made by making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 284, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Judiciary in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 284, H.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair