He will appeal.
On the other hand, if the mother didn't adopt out the baby, and kept it herself, she could sue him for child support as long as she kept the secret from him long enough that his year-to-object expired.
Different take on an old saying:
Judges are lawyers with their brains bashed out.
And people wonder why we despise family courts. This father was trying as best he knew how to be a father, and they still took his child away from him.
The point here, which is made a thousand different ways in divorce and custody trials across America, every day, is that Men have no rights that Women and the courts have to respect. Males are simply 4/5ths of a human.
Question: does this guy also qualify as a deadbeat in your opinion?
Yes, it defintely looks like the guy was trying to be a father, after the fact. So the court can just take away his parental rights at will, even though he wants the child. He got screwed.
Is this happening in that paragon of legal justice, Durham?
NC Social Worker Manual: http://info.dhhs.state.nc.us/olm/manuals/dss/csm-60/man/index.htm
Social Worker response decision tree: http://info.dhhs.state.nc.us/olm/manuals/dss/csm-60/man/CS1407-04.htm#P991_89359 (fascinating)
Charlotte, Mecklenburg, NC, DSS failure: http://www.rhinotimes.com/charlotte/archives/082803/story02.html
The pivotal court decision that swung control back to parents: http://sswnt7.sowo.unc.edu/fcrp/fp/fp_vol8no1/stumbo.htm
Good; that means it goes to the Supreme Court automatically.
The opinion is here.