BBC NEWS | Americas | Child dumped under Nebraska law

BBC NEWS | Americas | Child dumped under Nebraska law: "A mother has driven for 12 hours across the US to abandon her teenage son in Nebraska, under a law allowing adults to leave children at state hospitals.

The state's safe-haven law prevents prosecution for abandonment.

But the head of Nebraska's health and human services division said dumping children was not an appropriate way for families to deal with parenting issues.

The abandoned boy from Michigan, 13, is the 18th youth to be left since the law took effect in July.

He is the second teenager from outside the state to be abandoned there. The first, a 14-year-old girl from Iowa, was returned home after being left by her grandparents.

The law is unique in that it allows any adult, not just parents, to drop off children of any age at any state-licenced hospital. "