As Fathers and Families has highlighted a number of the family law issues involved in the recent Vaughn-Wyrembek adoption dispute (both in blog posts on this site and on our official Facebook page), we are seeing a great deal of discussion on this topic. One voice that has risen out of this discussion is that of longtime Fathers and Families supporter Eric Reines, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Dr. Reines disagrees with much of what we have posted to date on the subject. His statement on the case is below:
Responsum in re Adoption of G.V., by Eric Reines, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Life is tough. But let it be tough on me, not on my child.
This is the nobility of spirit, the humanity, that I aspire to, and that I expect of Fathers and Families.
Removing a three-year old child from loving parents, the only parents the child has ever known, is devastating, and wrong.
Only the most extenuating circumstances justify such an action: If the child were in danger from the parents; if the parents had kidnapped the child.
In the case presented to us, we learn details of strangers’ private lives that we would rather not know. But these strangers have asked the help of their government to carry out their wishes, and so their business has become our business. We are left wondering about the behavior and attitudes of the biological parents and the adoptive parents. However, these matters are irrelevant to my final conclusion.
The matter of law in this case, however, is relevant to all of us, and is an appropriate focus for Fathers and Families. As a matter of law, the majority opinion makes sense to me. As a matter of morality, it doesn’t. Moreover, the justices said as much, though they couched it in diplomatic language. Review of the Ohio Supreme Court ruling http://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1540810.html reveals that biological parents, adoptive parents, and adopted children, are all victims of bad laws, laws that apparently arose out of confused goals and conflicted constituencies. As society searches for its core values of parenthood, family, responsibility, and autonomy, Machiavellian political solutions are adopted.
But none of this is the child’s fault, and all of this should be obvious to any mature adult. The child must not suffer for it. But the adults must. The adults must work together to lawfully change bad laws.