Toward a reorientation of values and practice in child welfare

Child Psychiatry and Human Development

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 151-164

  Onheiber, Michael D ^a  

^a NONE   (United States)

Author keywords

Best Interests; Child; Child Abuse; Child Advocacy; Child Advocacy Team; Child Neglect; Child Welfare; Children; Guardian ad Litem; Parental Licensing; Parental Standards; Parents

Indexed keywords

CHILD ABUSE; CHILD WELFARE; FOSTER CARE; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HUMAN; REARING; REVIEW; SOCIAL CARE;

CHILD; CHILD ABUSE; CHILD ADVOCACY; CHILD WELFARE; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; PARENT-CHILD RELATIONS; PARENTING; PARENTS; SOCIAL VALUES;

EID: 0031049827     PISSN: 0009398X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/BF02353695     Document Type: Review

References (17)

1. "The trend is away from assuming that a parent has a biological right to possess the child as property toward recognizing parenthood as the earned result of affectionate bonding with a child. Although the biological parent has the right to establish a relationship with a child . . . the psychological, or 'real,' parent of a child is the person with whom the child actually forms an affectionate attachment bond after birth . . . The parent-child relationship is defined by life experience not by the event of birth. This redefinition of parenthood . . . is an essential way of thinking if our society is to value the competent parenting of children." Westman J, Licensing Parents: Can We Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect? New York: Plenum, 1994, p. 216.
2. Westman J, Licensing Parents: Can We Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect? Ibid, especially chapters 4, 5, and 6.
3. Katz S, ed: The Youngest Minority: Lawyers in Defense of Children: Vol 1. American Bar Association, 1974.
4. Finlay v. Finlay, 240 N.Y. 429, 148 N.E. 624 (1925). However, the best interests standard was recognized by at least one state supreme court some four decades earlier: Chapsky v. Wood, 26 Kan 650 (1881).
5. This phenomenon may be enhanced by the ahistorical character of modern society - especially American society - which is similar to medieval society in lacking a sense of history and a significant knowledge of the past. As a result, we are less likely to consciously and critically examine its influence upon us, and therefore the development and gradual acceptance of a new doctrine does not necessarily entail the conscious rejection of its predecessor, which tends to have continued influence as an unarticulated cultural inheritance.
6. It is provable, of course, that society has a critical interest in the balancing of parental rights and freedom of action with children's rights and corresponding parental responsibilities. Westman, J: Licensing Parents, supra. However, asking the individual to subordinate freedom of action to the interests of society also is a request for a value judgment from the individual in favor of others.
7. Goldstein J, Freud A, Solnit A: Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, New York: The Free Press, 1973,
8. Goldstein J, Freud A, Solnit A: Before the Best Interests of the Child, New York: The Free Press, 1979.
9. Fineman M: "The Role of Guardians ad Litem in Custody Contests" in: Who Speaks for the Children?: A Handbook of Individual and Class Child Advocacy, Westman J, ed. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resources Exchange, pp. 81-95. See especially pp. 85-90 and p. 94.
10. Himmelfarb, G: On Looking Into the Abyss: Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society. New York: Random House, 1994.
11. Westman, J: Who Speaks for the Children?: Supra, pp. 57-58. The last mentioned factor has become particularly invidious since the advent of "advocacy therapy," which can result in a surrender of professional objectivity in favor of a (self-imposed) duty to become the adult's advocate in testimony at proceedings affecting the child.
12. Wisconsin statutory and case law provide an excellent model as to formal provisions discussed above (except as to parental reimbursement in child welfare proceedings.) See Wisconsin Statutes Sections 48.23 and 48.235, and 767.045. These laws are based on recognition that the child's best interests deserve active and independent representation throughout proceedings at which those interests will be directly addressed and affected. However, they do not provide an open invitation to uncalled for and unrealistic interference with parental child rearing practices and decisions, feared by Goldstein, et al. See: Curly, P and Hermann, G: "Representing the Best Interests of Children: The Wisconsin Experience:" J of the Amer Acad of Matrimon Lawyers. Vol. 13, Summer, 1995.
13. Westman, J: Who Speaks for the Children?: Supra, pp. 65-78.
14. A constitutionally protected privacy interest (rather than a property right) protects parental rights from unwarranted intrusion. Privacy interests, however, are not absolute. Even if tested by strict scrutiny, the basic standards that might be included in parental licensure should be upheld as minimal and narrowly tailored measures justified by society's compelling interests in protecting its children and itself from the devastating consequences of child abuse and neglect.
15. Standards of Excellence For Family Foster Care Services: Revised Edition: Child Welfare League of America: Washington, D.C., 1995.
16. Westman J, Licensing Parents: Supra, p. 223, note 12.
17. Westman J, Licensing Parents: Ibid, especially chapters 3, 4 and 5.