In Europe, a health care trend is erupting. No, it is not about insurance or medicine. It’s about baby boxes.

Baby boxes are large, plastic incubated containers on the side of hospital buildings which people can open and safely abandon their baby. There is a note inside the box with a number to call if they change their mind. An alarm sounds after one minute, notifying hospital employees to retrieve the baby, and giving the parent time to anonymously flee.

The UN has a bone to pick, however.  According to United Nations Radio, “The [UN] committee [on the Rights of the Child] says allowing someone to anonymously abandon a child goes against the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which says children must be able to identify their parents.” Surprisingly, most of the United States does not follow this provision. The National Center for State Courts’ Infant Abandonment and Safe Haven Legislation said that “Safe haven laws permit a relinquisher to leave a newborn at a safe haven without supplying any identifying information….Currently, only 20 states provide procedures for safe haven personnel to request medical history information from relinquishers.”

Many believe that the medical attention baby boxes would provide to babies is a good reason to continue the practice. Scituate High School nurse, Mrs. Bernard thinks that “it’s a great idea: they’re in a hospital; they’ll be able to access the baby; if the baby needs medical care, it’ll be able to provide for it right there.”

However, some downsides exist. According to the BBC, psychologist, Kevin Browne of Nottingham University “it’s not necessarily mothers who place babies in these boxes – that it’s relatives, pimps, step-fathers, fathers.” Baby boxes could be problematic and could present “a danger to the mother and child” because they’re “so anonymous, and so removed from the availability of counseling” he said. Scituate High School Morality and Social Justice student, Shaia Palmer, thinks that baby boxes “would be good in an ideal world, but there are so many bad things that can happen. If you wanted your baby, that’s not right.”

So, should the United States get some baby boxes? It would depend on whether the U.S. was willing to disobey the UN and risk the unwanted abandonments they could cause. The medical attention could be lifesaving for babies born prematurely. Until the trend has been examined more closely, it is too soon to tell.