In Missouri, the weight
of a person has become a factor in adoption. Sandra talked about this happening in Australia in her international adoption blog. It seemed unreal that it would happen in the United States.
A foster parent that is licensed, provided kinship foster placement for an infant cousin that the birth mother was unable to care for. The couple went to family court to adopt the baby they were caring for and make it legal. They had been before this judge before adopting another child several years ago without any problems. They expected a quick approval and to be on there way. There was not a reason to think anything else. They were in for the shock of their lives. What was supposed to be simple turned out to be a horrible loss to the family.
They walked into a courtroom to adopt a child and were faced with discrimination. The adoptive father was overweight but did not think it would be an issue since his was a foster parent and an adoptive parent. He was wrong. Instead of approving the adoption the child was removed from their care. How do things go so wrong? They started the day with joy happiness in adding to their family but ending the day by grieving the loss of a child.
The baby they were caring for and adopting is no longer with them. Now they are left to fight a legal battle to be part of this baby’s life that they have grown to love. Strange how they were good enough to provide kinship foster care for their infant cousin but not to be the adoptive parents.
Since this was a baby (3 months old) did these adoptive parents not meet the picture of the ideal parents? Is choosing adoptive parents different for an infant than a older child? Some people may think that an overweight person may not make the best adoptive parents. Will the discrimination stop there or will it continue to include no older parents, single parents, large families, etc?
Once discrimination is allowed to happen it just becomes easier for others to do. The discrimination may not effect you today,but you never know when you may be targeted.
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I am OUTRAGED to see this story! This especially upset me because our son was adopted through the Kansas city court, we could have even had the same judge, and the same outcome since I am also overweight.
What if his wife had given birth to this baby? Would they now remove a child from a biological parent just for being obese? If this is the new trend then we had best be prepared for milions more children in the foster care system!
This is just awful. Our “justice” system is becoming less justified by the day. I will be praying for this family.