Is That a Baby in the Mail? Indiana Mulls Baby Mailboxes for Orphans

Indiana may become the first state in the United States to allow people to drop off unwanted newborns in what is essentially a mailbox.

BuzzFeed reports that the boxes are already in use abroad in Europe and Asia and they are actually incubators. The Indiana legislature is currently in the process of debating and voting on a bill that would allow for the provision of these boxes hospitals, churches, and fire stations throughout the state.

The bill has already been approved by the Indiana House and still needs to get through the Senate.

Those sites are the typical locations where babies are brought by mothers who are unable or unwilling to take care of them. As BuzzFeed notes, all 50 US states currently have "Safe Haven" laws that allow mothers who responsibly give up their children to avoid prosecution.

Advocates for the boxes say they save lives, but the boxes have also come under fire from powerful children's groups, including the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. In 2012, the committee released a report blasting the proliferation of the boxes throughout a number of European countries such as Germany, Austria, and Latvia.

The committee objected to the boxes because it believes that children should have the right to someday identify their parents.

The boxes would have heating or cooling pads depending on the season, and they would also be equipped with alarms so that employees at facilities with the boxes would know that an infant has been dropped off.

The boxes are a new take on an old practice. BuzzFeed notes that in medieval times, convents would often have revolving doors where mothers could drop off their babies and know that they would still be taken care of.