Društveni i pravni apekti napuštanja novorođenčeta
Social and Legal Aspects of Deserting a Newborn

Summary/Abstract: The phenomenon of deserting newborns is examined in the introduction using the historical and comparative methods. Different solutions adopted in national legislations and in case law reveal development of social treatment of the deserted children. It is concluded that in the course of history the morals, religion and customs have influenced desirability of political goals additionally reinforced by the laws related to sexuality and treatment of the deserted children by the community. The phraseology employed in Art. 7 of the UN Convention on the Right of the Child of 1989, which qualifies the right of the child to know his or her parents and fails to elevate it to the level of the child’s absolute rights, seems acceptable and appropriate to the stage of civilisation reached by the majority of the UN member states. The modern social state substitutes the lack of mother’s love for her child, expressed in the act of deserting the newborn, by means of other institutes of family law, such as foster care and adoption, protecting the right to life as the elementary human right.

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