Colorado Adoptive Parent Ends Justifying Means?

Does this sound like a relinquishment that is without coercion? 15-year-old parents sign a piece of paper in front of a notary without counseling or their own parents’ consent.

Well, a young Coloradan couple about two years ago asked the Goedels to take their newly-born son with this “relinquishment. But “[m]inors cannot enter into a contract with out parental consent. They can’t just go out and sign away their rights on a piece of paper,” said Sgt. Darrin Abink.”

In February of this year, the 17-year-old mother came to visit her child and took him permanently to Georgia.

As usual, the focus of the story is on the downtrodden adoptive parents and how the baby was “ripped away” (even though it appears that the Goedels allowed her to take the child from their home for some type of visit.) We acknowledge that this is an odd turn of events and due to lack of further details on the mother, we have to wonder about what is really missing from this story. What is stated is that the police refuse to get involved and the mother isn’t currently living with the father of the child. It does not appear that a crime has been committed in the eyes of local law enforcement –it seems to indicate that the mother has legal custody rights.

The father is siding with the prospective parents. Did the father push the mother to give the child to the Goedels initially?

The prospective parents do not currently have the money to file a lawsuit.

We have to ask: at the time of birth, where was the counseling for this young mother and father? How can a prospective couple be in the “final stages” of an adoption with nothing more than a notarized piece of paper from a minor? What kind of agency or lawyer would try to finalize this type of situation?

One thing we can say is that if your adoption process starts out as messy and suspect as this one, many people are going to get burned.

Woman: My Child Taken by Birth Mother

[KRDO.com 4/15/11 by Mireya Garcia]

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