Rashad's Law

I'm too tired for a substantive post tonight, so I'll just mention a depressing local news story about adoption. It was posted on the African-American board at SOA. This is not the original AJC article, but it gives a better snapshot of the current situation.

Rep. Ron Sailor, D-Decatur, held a news conference promoting his bill to give fathers the right to seek custody of their newborn child before the infant is given up for adoption.

"Rashad's Law" was inspired by 17-year-old Jeffrey Rashad Head, of Lawrenceville, who is fighting to gain custody of his five-month-old son after the boy's mother gave him up for adoption. Head said he told the baby's mother he wanted to raise him with help from his family but she ignored his wishes and the infant is living with adoptive parents somewhere in Florida.

Surrounded by his family in the state Capitol on Tuesday, Head said he had never been allowed to see his son and had only one picture.

"I wouldn't want him to feel like he didn't have a place in this world. That he was not wanted," Head said.

Head's lawyer, Leslie Gresham, said under Georgia law if the parents are not married, the mother can give away her child for adoption without ever consulting the biological father.

The legislation would require that the mother inform the father of her plans to surrender her parental rights. The father would then have 30 days to object in writing to her plans. If the mother still wanted to terminate her rights the father could take custody of the child.

Here is a father doing the right thing and stepping up to the plate... and the law is against him. I'm not saying that private domestic adoption is necessarily unethical, but potentially getting into a dilemma like the one above really disturbs me. I would really like to know which agency it was that created all this heartache and mess.