Adoption Case Brings Rare Family Law Dispute To High Court

[serendipity_15]

Take the usual agony of an adoption dispute. Add in the disgraceful U.S. history of ripping Indian children from their Native American families. Mix in a dose of initial fatherly abandonment. And there you have it - a poisonous and painful legal cocktail that goes before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday

Comments

[suwiel]

The article that was posted about this just a few days ago seemed to have more info than this one and painted the father in a more favorable light. After reading the two, I guess I'm hesitant to make any solid opinion on this particular case.

[kagehikario]

Yep! Floating in Team Nobody over here as well- it's like the awful reverse intersectionality of White Privilage versus Male Privilage...

[kagehikario]

(also being a White Male who is Queer and hoping to adopt one day... Nope, I'm gonna sit down for this one and listen)

[romp]

As you probably know, Canada has the same rule(s) about aboriginal children being adopted. Which is as it should be IMO. BC has plenty of children to adopt.

[screamingintune]

ugh he really does sound like a douchebag. Telling her via text he doesn't want to be a parent? He was willing to sign away his rights and responsibilities but thought he could still be a part of the kid's life? I have no sympathy tbh.

[kishmet]

uhhhhh Team Nobody tbh, or rather Team Whatever's Best For The Kid

given the comments it's hard to tell whether the mother had reasons for her deception or what. For all we know the guy's parents or siblings or whoever are abusive assholes and she worried they might get custody under the terms of the act, or she wasn't sure tribal parents would let her visit or w/e. I just have a really hard time judging a woman for wanting to keep some control over where her bio kid goes and with who

Bu-ut then it also seems possible that she and the adoptive family are both racist assholes given the arguments against the bio father so I don't know what the hell to think

[the_physicist]

this is pretty much how i feel. the case is complex and we don't know all the details we'd like to know to make up an opinion. this article is clearly biased though and doesn't even try to show how complicated it really is.

[thenakedcat]

If the bio-mother had gone through the placement process under the ICWA and didn't like whoever was chosen AND THEN TRIED TO ARRANGE AN OUTSIDE ADOPTION, I would have been a lot more sympathetic. Trying to be sneaky and fool the tribe garners no sympathy whatsoever.

[curseangel]

Frankly, kiiind of siding with the mother on this. He took the papers and signed away his parental rights, and the papers apparently said it was for an adoption, he just glossed over that part. Then when it became clear that she wanted to give up the baby -- not just be the baby's sole caretaker and take on all the expenses and time and everything to do with it and let him swan in to play daddy for some Kodak moments -- he suddenly wanted custody? Uh, what?

The adoptive parents (and especially their attorney) seem like assholes (and racists). But this guy seems like a complete creep.

I have very little sympathy for men who want to force women to take full responsibility for and care of children just so they can "play dad" every now and again, which is exactly what this guy wanted. The fact that he's apparently now married and thus has a new woman to foist his child off on, so he's able to pursue custody, doesn't make me feel any better about that.

[idemandjustice]

These are pretty much my feelings too. I think I just hate everything. And feel bad for the mother and the baby.

[kittenmommy]

The adoptive parents (and especially their attorney) seem like assholes (and racists). But this guy seems like a complete creep.

Yes.

[thenakedcat]

This article is pretty heavily biased towards the adoptive parents--other articles posted here on ONTD_P have given a more balanced account of what's really at issue: the biological father and his tribe had expanded rights to prevent an outside adoption under the ICWA--in order to assure that tribes get a chance to raise their own children even if the biological parents are out of the picture. The biological mother and the adoptive parents were fully aware of these rights but acted to circumvent them....and now they are using one father's douchebag actions to strike at the entire ICWA, while portraying themselves as Great White Saviors by playing up racist stereotypes about Native Americans.

The father wasn't primarily concerned with "playing dad", he was primarily concerned with keeping his daughter from being completely cut off from her tribal heritage. The best way to address that was for him to take custody...and by all accounts Veronica is doing fine being raised by her grandmother and biological father.

[romp]

This article is misleading based on others on the same case. Some of the commenters here have tried to correct this, like this one.

Fortunately, we don't debate what to do with aboriginal children in the US and Canada. Because of history AND the current way in which their families are screwed by poverty and bureaucracy, there are safeguards against the children being adopted by people outside their culture.

[thenakedcat]

May those safeguards live to see another century.