I read the article, and was surprised to hear that the inspiration for the bill was a girl who went into state care when neither of her legally recognized parents were able to care for her, although she had a biological dad willing to give her a home. There was a time when "next if kin" was more than good enough, and if parents died or were otherwise unable to care for a child some other family would step in. Only children with no living relatives wound up in state care. How sad that the laws today are so strict today that kids can't go to another family member (without having them designated in a will or something in advance as the one to take over in case of need).
Usually that would happen. It's possible the mothers had no living relatives (I first typed that as "loving relatives", which is also a possibility but probably not the key one here), in which case having the biological father listed as a parent would be critical, unless there was some driving reason he shouldn't care for the child.
Comments 2
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment