Adoption Laws Must Be Changed

Baby Richard knows who his real father is. He’s not the man who copulated with an unmarried woman and got her pregnant. He’s the Chicago firefighter who adopted Baby Richard, loved him through the first four years of his life and stood weeping helplessly this week as our messed-up laws ripped the terrified child from his home.

Americans who rightly felt sickened by the scene can expect such atrocities to occur again - until we change our laws to place children’s best interests first.

Children are in trouble in our society today, and their troubles stem directly from irresponsibility on the part of those who are their parents in biology only. In 1960, 5 percent of U.S. births occurred outside the supportive environment of marriage; now, 30 percent of births are to unmarried women. Children born to fatherless homes face high risks of abuse, poverty, educational failure and criminal involvement. Add to this picture the aborting of unwanted pregnancies.

Against this backdrop, adoption is a blessing. Why do we tolerate adoption laws that reward the irresponsible adults who make adoption necessary? The penalty for mistakes should fall on the erring adults, not on the children.

About five years ago, Otakar Kirchner impregnated Daniela Janikova. Nine months later, Janikova put the baby up for adoption. Kirchner had gone to his native Czechoslovakia; Janikova had heard he had returned to a former girlfriend, and she told Kirchner the baby had been born dead. But Kirchner learned otherwise, returned to America, brought legal action to invalidate the adoption and married Janikova.

Thanks to our outrageously inefficient judicial system, it took four years to decide the litigation. During those four years, Richard bonded with his adoptive parents. Two courts ruled in favor of Richard and the parents who love him. But a higher court ruled in favor of Kirchner, placing his status as a stud ahead of Richard’s interest in a secure, loving home.

This sends a terrible message concerning adoption - a gift of love, in the best sense of the word, which must be encouraged rather than deterred.

A solution is at hand in the Uniform Adoption Act, a proposal crafted by a group of judges, lawyers and children’s advocates. It would give a biological mother eight days to change her mind about an adoption and would give a biological father six months to contest an adoption. If no timely objection is raised, an adoption would become irrevocable. If states enacted this law and if courts swiftly enforced it, we would begin to redefine fatherhood in terms reflecting the best interests of children.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board