(a) As used in this section and in § 36-1-142, unless the context otherwise requires:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-11-255

  • Birthing center: means any institution, facility, place or building devoted exclusively or primarily to the provision of routine delivery services and postpartum care for mothers and their newborn infants. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Facility: means any institution, place or building providing health care services that is required to be licensed under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Hospital: means any institution, place, building or agency represented and held out to the general public as ready, willing and able to furnish care, accommodations, facilities and equipment for the use, in connection with the services of a physician or dentist, of one (1) or more nonrelated persons who may be suffering from deformity, injury or disease or from any other condition for which nursing, medical or surgical services would be appropriate for care, diagnosis or treatment. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
  • Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Person: means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, other business entity, state or local governmental agencies and entities, and federal agencies and entities to the extent permitted by federal law. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) “Facility” means a hospital as defined by § 68-11-201, birthing center as defined by § 68-11-201, community health clinic, out-patient “walk-in” clinic, fire department that is staffed twenty-four (24) hours a day, law enforcement facility that is staffed twenty-four (24) hours a day, not including dispatch centers, or emergency medical services facility;
(2) “Member of the professional medical community” has the meaning provided in § 68-140-102; provided, that the member of the professional medical community is on the premises at the time of a voluntary delivery;
(3) “Newborn safety device” means a device:

(A) Designed to permit a mother to anonymously place a newborn infant aged fourteen (14) days or younger in the device with the intent to leave the newborn infant for an emergency medical services provider to remove the newborn infant from the device and take custody of the newborn infant;
(B) Installed with an adequate dual alarm system connected to the physical location where the device is installed. The dual alarm system must be:

(i) Tested at least once per month to ensure the alarm system is in working order; and
(ii) Visually checked at least twice per day to ensure the alarm system is in working order;
(C) Approved by and located inside a participating police station, fire station, or hospital that is:

(i) Licensed or otherwise legally operating in this state; and
(ii) Staffed continuously on a twenty-four (24) hour basis every day by a licensed emergency medical services provider; and
(D) Located in an area that is conspicuous and visible to a police station, fire station, or hospital staff; and
(4) “Voluntary delivery” means the action of a mother in leaving an unharmed newborn infant aged fourteen (14) days or younger on the premises of a facility, with a facility employee or member of the professional medical community at the facility, or in a newborn safety device, without expressing an intention to return for the newborn infant, and failing to visit or seek contact with the newborn infant for a period of thirty (30) days thereafter.
(b) A facility shall receive possession of a newborn infant left on facility premises with a facility employee or member of the professional medical community, or in a newborn safety device, if the newborn infant:

(1) Was born within the preceding fourteen-day period, as determined within a reasonable degree of medical certainty;
(2) Is left in an unharmed condition; and
(3) Is voluntarily left by a person who purports to be the newborn infant’s mother and who does not express an intention of returning for the newborn infant.
(c) The facility, a facility employee, and a member of the professional medical community at such facility shall inquire, whenever possible, about the medical history of the mother and newborn infant. The facility shall also inform the mother that the mother is not required to respond. Information obtained concerning the identity of the mother, newborn infant, or other parent must be kept confidential and may be disclosed only to the department of children’s services for use consistent with the purposes of this section and §§ 36-1-142 and 36-2-318. If practicable, the facility shall also provide the mother with both orally delivered and written information concerning the requirements of this section and §§ 36-1-142 and 36-2-318 relating to recovery of the newborn infant and abandonment of the newborn infant.
(d)

(1) A mother has the right to remain anonymous, shall not be pursued, and shall not be considered to have endangered a newborn infant under title 39, chapter 15, part 4 if the mother places the newborn infant:

(A)

(i) With an emergency medical services provider;
(ii) At a facility; or
(iii) Inside a newborn safety device; and
(B) Expresses no intent to return to the newborn infant.
(2) This subsection (d) does not apply when indicators of child abuse or child neglect are present.
(e) The facility, a facility employee, and a member of the professional medical community at the facility shall perform any act necessary to protect the physical health and safety of the newborn infant.
(f) The facility employee or member of the professional medical community at the facility who accepts physical custody of a newborn infant, or who physically retrieves a newborn infant from a newborn safety device that meets the requirements of this section, shall immediately arrange for the newborn infant to be taken to the nearest hospital emergency room and shall have implied consent to any and all appropriate medical treatment. The hospital shall immediately notify the department of children’s services that the surrendered newborn infant is at the hospital. Upon notification, the department shall immediately assume care, custody, and control of the newborn infant.
(g) Notwithstanding a law to the contrary, an infant delivered to a facility authorized to accept an infant under this section or § 36-1-142, shall be issued by the office of vital records, a birth certificate in accordance with § 68-3-307, which supersedes and invalidates any previously issued birth certificate.
(h) Notwithstanding a law to the contrary, a facility, facility employee, and member of the professional medical community is immune from criminal or civil liability for damages as a result of actions taken pursuant to this section and § 36-1-142, and a lawsuit shall not be predicated on those actions. This section and § 36-1-142 do not abrogate an existing standard of care for medical treatment or preclude a cause of action based upon violation of such existing standard of care for medical treatment.
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