Word: parentes
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Still, in most of these cases, fathers are unlikely to claim their biological offspring. Many do not know that they have children; others would refuse to admit paternity. The ability of biological parents to win custody also varies from state to state. Some states allow a parent up to two years to return and claim either fraud or duress in order to win back a child. In Iowa, where the Schmidts live, court rulings allow the father to "come back at any point in the child's life," says Seader. In New York State, however, the court of appeals ruled...
...they decided to fight instead, and a legal stay permitted them to keep Jessica while the appeals proceeded. They argued that Dan was not a fit parent; why was he so intent on being a father to Jessica, they asked, when he had two other children by two other women whom he had made no effort to help raise? Robby wrote letter after letter to children's-rights advocates around the country. She talked to reporters. In January the Iowa Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, but the appeals process dragged on for months. Dan and Cara got married...
...declared that it could not and should not pay attention to the best interests of the child, that the only issue at hand in this case was the father. The Michigan Supreme Court deferred to Iowa's decision. Only if Daniel Schmidt was found to be unfit as a parent could the courts consider the rights of the little girl. This approach has made adoption advocates draw back in fury. "When you're dealing with a child who has had a 2 1/2-year relationship with a set of de facto parents," says Harvard law professor Elizabeth Bartholet, author of Family...
...here that the story of Jessica promises to rip open the debate over what it means to be a parent, and what rights children have when their parents and guardians take refuge in the law. In many states the rights of biological parents are all but inviolable; only in extreme cases are courts willing to terminate a parent's right to custody. But as stories emerge of children who are plainly suffering the consequences of being treated more like property than people, the tide has begun to turn...
Some courts have begun to favor nurture over nature when a custody battle erupts. Denver juvenile court judge Dana Wakefield says he invariably considers the child's needs over the parents' demands. "In my courtroom, they stay where they've been nurtured," he says flatly. "You have to consider who the child feels is the psychological parent. If they have a good bond in that home, I'm not about to break it." In the DeBoers' case, he adds, the alternatives were not necessarily better for Jessica. "The other parents didn't have a good track record to simply hand...