Victory for father's rights regarding adoption

The_Minister

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/1013/1224256509002.html

THE ADOPTION Board will discuss at its meeting today the latest High Court judgment on adoption. Last week the court ruled that the board must make a genuine attempt to consult the natural father of a child placed for adoption, where he has had a close and ongoing relationship with the child, even if the mother objects on the grounds that he is violent. Such allegations must be independently corroborated in future.

This applies even if the couple are unmarried.

Hopefully this is just the beginning, and more rights are recognised for unmarried fathers.

The_Minister

*Bump*
Anyone have any comment?

This is a fairly big step in recognising unmarried fathers.

trout

In principle, further recognition of unmarried father's rights should be supported.

I'd stop short of calling it a victory though.

Can't help but wonder how they define a "genuine attempt to consult", or even a "close & ongoing relationship with the child" ?

The devil is in the detail.

It's not something you hear much about, the rights of unmarried fathers, is there a representative body active in Ireland ?

The only one I can think of are those guys a few years back who did publicity stunts to raise awareness, but they were UK based (I think).

maherro

I would be the same as trout. And you have to wonder whether being granted a basic right is a victory - more like its about time I'd say

CDfm

Its a major victory for fathers full stop.

As so many cases are heard in camera it will be interesting to see if the case has implications for other areas in family law concerning fathers rights.

Interestingly, when there was a constitutional case concerning interim barring orders a few years back the Dail convened and passed new legislation fairly quickly. So lets hope the politicians dont try to circumnavigate the ruling.

CDfm

trout wrote: »

It's not something you hear much about, the rights of unmarried fathers, is there a representative body active in Ireland ?

You have several

www.usfi.ie this is a great site for unmarried and seperated fathers

www.parentalequality.ie

Snowie

It good to hear even tho im not a dad...

so bassiacly there is more chance for the dad to be an active parent to his child ?

what happens in some case's if the father isnt capble repsonable enough to take care of the child...? but gets it

Klingon Hamlet

Snow-Monkey wrote: »

what happens in some case's if the father isnt capble repsonable enough to take care of the child...? but gets it

IMHO, unless there is clear proof of a father's inadequacy as a parent (violent nature / severe drug dependancy / etc...) then dads and mums should be treated equally.

There are just as many good dads as mums. And just as many bad mums as bad dads. Facing that reality can be difficult to accept even in this day and age.

Parental abduction / dissociation is a common issue in modern families, and there is very little the other parent can do to ease the pain of this, bar fight in the courts. (Sadly I know first-hand the bias towards mother over father: IMHO, children are actually neglected completely by the state.)

Cabaal

Klingon Hamlet wrote: »

IMHO, unless there is clear proof of a father's inadequacy as a parent (violent nature / severe drug dependancy / etc...) then dads and mums should be treated equally.

There are just as many good dads as mums. And just as many bad mums as bad dads. Facing that reality can be difficult to accept even in this day and age.

Spot on, as there is just as many bad as good its is only fair for both sides to be treated the same UNTIL can be proven otherwise

banie01

The_Minister wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/1013/1224256509002.html


This applies even if the couple are unmarried.

Hopefully this is just the beginning, and more rights are recognised for unmarried fathers.

Whether the couple are married or not should be irrelevant...

We live in a country where at the moment unmarried fathers have no statutory parental rights apart from being financially responsible to their progeny with regards to maintanence and inheritance rights.

In my own situation, After my partner passed away I had to obtain a grant of guardianship for our Son as thanks to way the archaic legal system in this country works..... My Mother in Law was our son's next of kin!
Despite me and my partner being together 12 years....
Despite our son's only home being our home....
And despite being named on his birth cert...
Luckily I never encountered a situation in the interim where this may have presented a problem and in any event at the time neither my MIL or I were even aware of it.

Even more worrying for me in this situation was that despite dealing with various Govt Departments with regard to transferring his CB into my name, Getting his 1st passport issued and various other ancilliary things it was not until I was sorting out my will that my solicitor queried guardianship!!
(And before its pointed out that by making wills my partner could have avoided all these issues, My partner died at 26 and at that age don't we all think we are invincible!)

I know that the commission for Law Reform are currently addressing this area, Yet to my ear currently all the rhetoric seems to be surrounding Civil Partnerships and the rights of children in that situation....
But surely it would make more sense to normalise the relationships, responsibilities and rights of biological parents and bring these into line with international norms as parental rights! Not maternal or paternal rights!

metrovelvet

^ That happened to someone I know, except in his case after his partner died, he didnt want to raise the child on his own, so her handed her over to the maternal grandmother. He changed his mind two years later and then got uppity about his rights.

GalwayKiefer

Hopefully this is another step in the right direction, the more rights for the father in Irish law the better. Anyone who's been through the family courts will tell you how utterly biased it is towards the mother.

A Galway based group: http://www.fathers.ie/