Doreen (re: death of 13-month-old Kylla Pahl in house fire): It seems that if a parent is a drug or alcohol abuser and has demostrated neglect of their child(ren) their parental rights should be terminated more often than we see happen. Sure, we'd all love to see families stay together but common sense must prevail and the well being of the children must be put before the familial bonds. I am beginning to believe that rather than the flawed foster system, we reconsider the orphanage option. True it is not the ideal circumstance but the oversight can be better and it is possible to feel loved and secure in that setting. The Children's Village, though not a true orphanage is a good example of the love and care kids can receive outside of the foster system. I dunno, just a thought. We too often read of cases where foster parents are money motivated rather than feeling genuinely "called" to help. Not an easy fix in any case. But second and third and fourth chances ought to be scrutinized VERY hard.

DFO: The system definitely seems broken. You'd think we could come up with something better. At least, we need to make adoption easier and study the possibility of reinventing orphanages.

---

---