] LOS ANGELES (AP) -- All too often, the ring of Debi ] Faris-Cifelli's cell phone means there is another ] abandoned newborn at the morgue, another forsaken child ] for her to name and bury in a shoebox-size coffin under a ] white cross in the California desert. ] ] The money could not come at a better time for ] Faris-Cifelli and her Garden of Angels, the tiny cemetery ] in the town of Calimesa where she has buried dozens of ] tiny children whose mothers didn't hear -- or didn't care ] -- about California's safe-haven law. ] ] Under the 2001 law, parents have three days to abandon ] infants without fear of prosecution. California is one of ] 46 states with such a law. ] ] Faris-Cifelli helped win passage of the law and has made ] it her life's work to spread the word that scared and ] confused parents should drop their newborns at firehouses ] and hospitals -- not in trash cans and alleys. She ] lobbies in states without such laws, talks to teens and ] police and has attended 12 trials of mothers accused of ] abandoning their infants. She also lays the dead to rest. This story is really amazing. I had no idea that that kind of charity still existed or that there were laws like that in existence. The money certainly couldn't have gone to a more deserving person. The cause, too, is worthwhile, however I can't help but wonder how much more/less effective a campaign for birth control methods (and NOT, thank you Bush, archaic abstinence) would be. -janelane CNN.com - Baby rescuer hits $27 million lottery - Dec 7, 2004 |