TN: Single Dad Stops Adoption; To Get Custody of Daughter

Fathers & Families, Inc. ^ | May 13, 2010 | Robert Franklin, Esq.

[John O]

D’Uh. Sometimes I need to read better. A boy named Anna?

OK. My points all still stand. A girl needs to be with her daddy rather than with some other people who are not related.

[John O]

Justice Scalia wrote a superb dissent in which he warned that under the rule adopted by the Court, which completely ignored the relationship between the biological father and the mother, a rapist would have parental rights if he later established some kind of relationship with the child. This ruling in Tennessee makes clear that Justice Scalia was prescient about how the law would go.

If this same rapist could have been charged for child support if the mother had decided to keep the child, then yes he should have parental rights. (once he gets out of prison for the rape)

It's neither unreasonable nor extreme to expect that if the father has responsibilities then he also has rights.

But since the immediate case was not a rape that's really not germane to this discussion.

[Jewbacca]

Fantasy land.

They kidnapped a baby using the court system. They should not be rewarded.

[chris_bdba]

Me either? From what I remember you pleged for better or for worse not if children could be produced or not before you did anything?

[chris_bdba]

Under the law both parents have to give up their rights. The Mother does not have the right to decide that all on her own like this one tried to do. This woman is a very spiteful witch IMHO who tried to punish the guy for who knows what but what she did is beyond the pale and I’m glad she will have to pay child support for it.

[chris_bdba]

But the adoptive parents knew from an early age that the fahter wanted his baby and fought it so here they knew they were trying to adopt an unadoptable child. They are as gulity here as the Mother was.

[John O]

The biological father is a guy who knocked up a woman he had known for a month, and he had no relationship whatsoever with the child.

HOGWASH! He is the child's father. The child is half him. How much closer of a relationship do you want?!

The adoptive parents went through legal channels to welcome the baby to a loving home.

So now they'll have no problem returning the child to where she belongs - with her father! If they delay they are just as guilty as the mother in trying to kidnap this child from her father.

but neither the child nor his (or her, but “the masculine embraces the feminine”) adoptive parents should be punished

How is the child being punished? She gets restored to her father where she belongs. Since children forget the vast majority of experiences prior to age 5 the transistion time will be swift and she'll be happy knowing he wanted her from the day of conception.

The "adoptive parents" aren't being punished as they are doing the right thing and returning the child to her father.

[EricT.]

I told you I read it.

Yes, the mother is a lying scumbag.

He still made a baby with a woman he barely knew, which touched off this whole drama.

Yes, people make the same mistake all the time. People also drive drunk, cheat on their spouses, speed, cheat on their taxes, etc.

Irresponsibility has consequences. Some are worse than others.

I’m not going to give this guy a pass just because he isn’t as bad as the woman he mated with.