Child Abuse or Faith Healing?

I’m all for religious freedom except when someone’s safety is endangered — especially if it involves the safety of a child.

I was disturbed to read about the Oregon couple who did not seek professional medical attention for their 10-month-old baby because of their faith healing practice. Their baby is now facing blindness in one eye.

The Oregon Department of Human Services won custody yesterday of little Alayna Wayland. Her parents, Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, have been charged with first degree criminal mistreatment for failing to provide adequate care according to CBS News. Continue reading »

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The Chicago Tribune reported last week that a woman, identified as Wendy, “who raised two adopted children for years in a same-sex relationship is not considered their parent under Wisconsin law,” according to the District 4 Court of Appeals.  The court ruled Thursday that Wendy’s former partner Liz is the only legal parent of the children because their adoptions were processed under Liz’s name.  ”Same-sex couples do not have adoption rights in Wisconsin, meaning that only one of them can be considered the legal parent,” according to the Tribune.

As you can imagine, this decision is crushing for Wendy, who was a stay-at-home mom to the children for seven years.  In response to the judge’s ruling, Wendy said, “I shouldn’t have to fight to parent my kids who I’ve been parenting 24-7.  For me to read in the court documents that I’m not a parent is disturbing and troubling.”  She is considering taking her case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

This ruling is in line with a recent decision by a judge in the UK, who determined the non-biological lesbian mother of a ten-year-old boy is not his legal parent.  It does not, however, follow the precedent just set by the U.S. government allowing the partners of gay biological and adoptive parents who have an in loco parentis relationship with their partner’s child to care for said child under the Family and Medical Leave Act.  The FMLA ruling does not indicate that non-biological gay parents are the legal parents of a child they care for, but that they have a legal right to care for their child.  If gay parents have a legal right to care for a child that is ostensibly their child via the aforementioned in loco parentis relationship, then why, provided that they are responsible and loving parents, is it so difficult for non-biological/adoptive gay parents to be granted the same parental rights after a split?  It just doesn’t make sense. Continue reading »

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Gay marriage may not be legal in New York State, but one lesbian mom got a great Mother’s Day gift this week when the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that she is the legal parent of her 6-year-old son, “based on a Vermont civil union that she and her former partner entered into prior to his birth.”

The Drama

You see, Debra H. and Janice R. were just two crazy kids in love back in 2003, and they ran off to Vermont to get hitched.  Or civil-unioned, “which at that time was the most legally significant relationship available to same-sex couples under U.S. law,” according to Lambda Legal, a nationwide organization fighting for the rights of GLBT people, and the representatives of the plaintiff.  Janice R. got preggers using a sperm donor, and the happy couple met with an adoption lawyer before their son was born to arrange for Debra H. to have full parental rights.  Lambda Legal stresses that, “Debra was by Janice’s side throughout labor and delivery and cut their son’s umbilical cord; her last name was included in their son’s name on his birth certificate.”  After their son’s birth, Janice R. was all, “We don’t need The Man to sanction your parentage.  It’s all good, baby, I love you.”  But then Janice R. dumped Debra H. in 2006 and was like, “That’s my kid, bish!”  Debra H. was like, “Say what, hooker?!”  And then they went to court. Continue reading »

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Nobody is arguing that Abbie Dorn should be allowed to take care of her kids. The 34-year-old mother of triplets is severely disabled, unable to speak or sit up or even lift a child to her lap. Instead, her two girls and a boy, who are nearly four, live with their father, Dan Dorn, in California, while Abbie lives in South Carolina, where her parents, Susan and Paul Cohen, take care of her every need.

One of those needs, the Cohens say, is to see her three children, which she has held only once in her life — just after she suffered a botched c-section and before a resulting severe cardiac arrest and subsequent strokes. Continue reading »

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It’s so, so easy to judge other parents. And when those parents are really and truly bad — not “I yelled at my kid in the grocery store” or “I let them watch craploads of TV” bad, but really really bad, like “I lost my kids to foster care because I’d leave them for days at a time while I went in search of more meth” bad — it’s impossible not to.

But this very well-written column from the LA Times looks at the hurdles many mothers face as they attempt to get their lives back together and win the chance to parent their children again. Continue reading »

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Some five hundred kids from Arlington will be bused out to watch former President George W. Bush give a speech later this month at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. These are the same kids who weren’t allowed to watch President Barack Obama’s speech to American school children yesterday.

Hypocrisy has a new name, and it shares it with a school district in Texas. Continue reading »

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While much of the world goes in the opposite direction, voters in New Zealand put up a public referendum asking to be allowed to spank their children.

The two-year-old law banning spanking is in line with the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of Children, prompted by the deaths of two kids in 2006. Continue reading »

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