Case Study: Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl

Can Alan Simpson (hereinafter called “Mr. Simpson”), non-adopted resident minor, inherit from Rebecca Sweeney’s (hereinafter called “Mrs. Sweeney”) estate, decedent and former resident of California, when she died even though he was never adopted by Mrs. Sweeney legally under California law?

Parents wishing to adopt have challenged the adoption laws regarding American-Indian children. For many decades, people wanting to adopt African-American children from disturbing situations have been put through several issues. A law was passed called the “Indian child welfare act” to end what was then a common practice. The state claims they thought that American-Indian children were better off in homes with non-Indian parents. A handful of recent lawsuits say the federal law and similar legislation at state levels make it harder to find stable homes for children. they’ve had many cases fall apart, because parents adopting don’t want the children. Most adopting parents believe it's unfair to them if they can’t adopt American-Indian children.

As well as through the lens of indigenous, “the radicalization of American Indians and the politics of cultural authenticity, inviting a nuanced analysis of implicit racial bias in the courts.” (2016). The ICWA provides practices and protections for Indian children, families and tribes, but is only applicable to a small fraction of Indian families. What makes Adoptive Couple v Baby Girl so important is that is sought to clarify if a non-custodial parent can invoke the ICWA to stop the adoption process to a non-Indian parent and if ICWA’s definition of “parent” included unwed biological fathers? (Beardall,

Adoptive couple v. Baby Girl was a case that involved the biological parents of the baby girl in question. The biological mother Christy was Hispanic-Caucasian and, the father Mr. Brown, a member of a Cherokee Indian tribe. Congress had to step in due to the “ICWA” or the Indian Child Welfare Act that was passed in 1978 to prevent the illegal and harsh removal of Indian children from the tribes. This case was a huge battle in the Supreme Court between the biological father Dusten Brown and the adoptive parents of baby Veronica in September of 2011. This case caused uproar with people on both sides of the fence.

I have always been the youngest. I was the youngest of a rather large family of seven. My parents, then two girls, then three boys. Me being the last of the boys. I was five when it all began. I was living in Sheffield, England and my parents had been thinking about adoption for a little while. One day when we all met in the conservatory for devotions, Mom and Dad walked in purposefully and started devotions by saying,”Kids, we have been thinking about adding a member to our family. We want to adopt.” The room got quieter and everyone was still while Mom and Dad waited for a reaction. I had absolutely no idea what in the world that meant, but the word sounded sharp so I liked it. I quickly learned that it meant “finding a kid whose parents couldn’t take care of them, and bringing them into our family and making them our son, or daughter, brother or sister.” I liked the idea and was all for it. Mom and Dad warned us that it would not be easy to adopt. We discussed the what it would take and what it would mean for us. I’ll admit I didn’t understand most of it, but I did understand that I was getting a new sibling, and that some things would change. If I only knew how much…

This case was last before the court on 6/26/2017 for a report to the court. At that time, temporary custody of Issac Johnson remained with the Department and a pretrial conference date was set for October 30, 2017.

The second account of a changing stance toward children’s rights was evolution alongside women’s rights. Before this time, women and children were seen as unimportant under the law, whereas a father was given almost total control over all matters regarding his wife and children. If a father was violent or neglectful, society simply turned their shoulder to it. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, laws pertaining to the family system began to change. A new law recognized the equal rights of fathers and mothers with the mother’s rights reigning over the fathers in regards to the children. Also, the legal system began viewing children as important to the future of society, therefore “appropriate objects of the court’s

According to the 2015 Adoption and foster care Analysis and reporting system (AFCARS), 427,910 children were in the US foster care, making Foster care one of the social issues in the USA. The US Department of Health and Human services (HHS) is working on this social issue for past few years but is still not getting positive results — every year population of Foster care is increasing by 50,000 youths. The statistics about Foster care system is changing every day. Some things that people don’t know about foster care is that they will not only lose their children—they had lost parental rights and had broken the laws, so this can lead to a punishment. There are many laws related to foster care. Once the parents had lost the children, the children

In this article, “Doing What’s Best for the Tribe”, author Marcia Zug, an associateof law at the University of South Carolina. Describes a court case that involves a Cherokee Nation father and a non-indian mother. Few months into the the mother's pregnancy, she began to look into adoption. The mother soon found a non- indian family and decided to go through with the adoption without the father knowing. The father had no information until after baby Veronica was four months old. Dustin Bowen, the father was determined to fight for his daughter. After two years in the South Carolina Supreme Court finally made their ruling. On July 26, baby Veronica was reunited with her

There were no reported changes in this area. Mr. and Mrs. Gailliard (MHS) describe Clarence as quiet. Clarence continues to get more sociable. Clarence had some interactions, however separates himself from peers.

access to fair hearings and court review of decisions, so that his best interests are

That's enough, I shouted in the court room. Your honor, he needs to be in a foster care, he's going to foster care you hear me, he's going to foster care, DFCS attorney said. You don't make the decision here i do. So don't you ever try to make an demand in my court room ever again or I'll have you awaiting in jail so long your great great great great grandchildren will need a lawyer now sit down, I said in an outrageous livid way. Now back to you defendant i have thought this over and I've made an decision. My decision is that you go to live with your brothers they are good hard working young men and take great care of you,but if i ever see you in here again you will be put in foster care. Now this case is dismissed.

There was a court case, Baby Girl v. Adoptive Couple, in which a child who was partially Cherokee Indian, because of her father, and Hispanic, because of her mother. The adoption of Baby Girl was a difficult one due to the fact that she has an ancestry of Cherokee Indian. Therefore, under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the adoption of Baby Girl seemed impossible because Biological Father had the right to have custody of his child, Baby Girl, if he chose to. So, the court greatly sees that by giving Baby Girl back to Biological Father would be in the child’s best interest under the ICWA, because there is the assumption that if she is with her Biological Father and her culture, she will not suffer any type of emotional distress. For

My sister Katie feels like she “doesn’t belong” with my family. As kids, we used to play dress up with one another and Katie would always ask my mom to make her have blonde hair just as I did. My mom would then put a yellow towel on her head so that she could pretend she did. As a child I could not understand why Katie would want to do such a silly thing to try and look as I did. In my eyes we were both the same and nothing else mattered. As we got older, it became more apparent to me how different we really were. I am Caucasian and she is Native American. I have blonde hair and blue eyes while she has black hair and brown eyes. Not only did we look very different but our personalities differed as well. Katie was always much more fussy

Adoption is a big decision for birthparents (and adoptive parents). There are so many factors to consider when putting a child up for adoption and also when adopting a child. A majority of the time the birth father isn¡¯t even considered in the decision. Birthparents often begin to second guess their decision of adoption usually after the birth of their child. They get attached instantly and don¡¯t want to give the child up. There are lots of pros and cons and some people don¡¯t even consider when they make comments about adoptive parents and children and open adoption.