Any licensed hospital discharging a newborn infant identified for adoption to a child-placing agency shall arrange for the physical transfer of custody of such infant to take place in a safe, secure and private room on the hospital premises. The prospective adoptive parents may be present at the discharge with the approval of the child-placing agency. At the time of discharge, the hospital shall provide such prospective adoptive parents or child-placing agency with any nonidentifying information customarily provided to birth parents upon discharge concerning the care, feeding and health of the infant. The hospital shall provide the child-placing agency with the medical information concerning the birth mother and the infant within a reasonable time. Such prospective adoptive parents shall be permitted to participate in any program of instruction regarding infant care and child development that is made available by such licensed hospital to birth parents, provided such prospective adoptive parents pay the cost of such participation in such program.
(P.A. 91-252, S. 3; P.A. 92-179, S. 3; P.A. 96-130, S. 15.)
History: P.A. 92-179 amended provision re hospital discharge of newborn infant identified for adoption, permitting adoptive parents to be present at discharge with the approval of adoption agency, adding “nonidentifying” before “information”, requiring hospital to provide information re feeding of infant, and requiring hospital to provide adoption agency with medical information concerning birth mother and infant; P.A. 96-130 changed “adoption” to “child-placing” agencies.