Action 3 News - Omaha, Nebraska News, Weather, and Sports | Nebraska ordered to let parents give up rights
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Associated Press - July 23, 2010 11:45 AM ET
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court has ordered the state's Department of Health and Human Services to allow parents of a 12-year-old to relinquish their parental rights and make the child eligible for adoption.
The Douglas County Juvenile Court had ruled in November that DHHS should accept the parents' decision to terminate their rights, because they said they wanted no contact with their daughter.
The girl was dropped off at an Omaha hospital in November 2008 under the state's old safe-haven law, which allowed anyone to leave a child at a hospital without fear of prosecution for the abandonment.
DHHS initially didn't allow the parents to give up their rights, because they were paying child support. That support order would end if their rights were terminated.
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