San Diego Parent: Garden of Innocence
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By Colleen McNatt | September 2002
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San Diego's "Garden of Innocence" is a non-profit, non-denominational organization that provides funeral and bural services to abandoned babies in the county. The group recently purchased land adjacent to its existing garden at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.
Escondido resident Sandra Scott is one of the 14 founding members when the group formed in the spring of 1999. That year the group buried 13 infants in the garden. Scott, who is the mother of a teenage son and full-time insurance broker, joined the group after reading an article about a similar organization. After reading an article about the group, Scott couldn't shake her sorrow over the idea that someone would abandon a new life.
"Why did I take it so hard?" Scott asks. "I have never been able to have children. I had to adopt."
To date the group has buried 32 babies in teh garden. The Country of San Diego entrusts the abandoned children with the volunteers after being unable to locate a relative. Each infant is given a name and burial ceremony that includes flowers, music, rose petals and a special poem written for the individual baby.
"We want to send these babies home with dignity," says Scott. "We want to go out of business, but it doesn't look like we will," she adds.
Last year, the "Save a Baby Bill" (SB 1368) became a law by allowing mothers to surrender their infants to any hospital emergency response official within 72 hours and be exempt from criminal procsecution. The law also grants the mother a "cooling off" period of two weeks should she reconsider her parenting choice and decide to work toward reclaiming her child. although this law was in effect Jan. 1 of last year, the Garden of Innocence buried 12 more babies since 2001. The last baby was found in June and laid to rest in the garden.
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