Holy crap, folks...this one's a doozy...

[chadachada123]

How about this: The adoptive parents can keep the child if they pay the woman for all of the money wasted between birth and kidnapping (including hospital bills for the birth).

Since the mother only had the child for two years, she doesn't have nearly as much attachment to the child as the current parents do, so some monetary compensation should make up for it since she could just have another child.

 

[w00tage]

Obviously the child should be returned to her natural mother, BUT... offer the Guatemalan mother immigration and help her get set up near the adoptive parents. The best thing for the child is that she gets all relationships instead of being ping-ponged.

 

[Risingblade]

Seriously these adoptive parents have no right to keep the child from her real parents. The whole adoption thing wasn't actually official anyway.

So the parents aren't allowed to love her like their own daughter because the paperwork was a fake? Sound logic.

So her real parents have no right to have their daughter back? Someone can just kidnap your child give her to to someone else and you can't get them back? Love your logic there mate.

 

[ablac]

Let the kid decide who she wants to live with. I'm sure she'll decide to live with her adoptive parents depending upon how nice they are. I don't really understand why this is a tough decision. Sure, I guess separating a mother from her child is a little cruel but this decision is not all about the mother.

The kid is five. She isnt really old enough to understand why,how or the consequences of such a decision. Plus theres the pressure upon her to make a decision which will effect a large part of her life. Then theres also the fact that it would be pretty cruel to the ones she didnt choose since she would either be ungrateful (quite the understatement) or she would be rejecting her own mother. I think this really needs to be decided between the adopters and the parents with the girl being involved and having things best explained to her. No one else can really make such a decision, whilst staying with her adopters would be 'better' since she has spent all her knwoing life with them it really is a question for those involved since its impossible to understand what it must be like for them.

 

[Bertylicious]

*reads comments*

Right. Well. Okay. Here's the thing:

In these situations you have to consider the welfare of the child to be paramount because the child is the most vulnerable person in this situation. The child is in a loving home, presumably, and disrupting that and using her as a token in some sort of weird game of moral brinksmanship is going to do nobody any favours.

I can appreciate the sentiment, truly, and also agree that sending the child back to her biological mother seems like the common sense approach but common sense isn't always right. Afterall, common sense would tell us that the world is flat.

1. no it wouldn't.

2. The parents don't live in shacks. They live in the suburbs. That's where the middle class/rich Latin Americans live.

Well yeah, the suitability for parenthood of both parties does make it more ambivalent than it otherwise might be, but I'm not convinced that it is a decisive factor. The reality is that you'd be breaking up a family, for a second time and I'm seeing this as a classic 2 wrongs don't make a right scenario.

I dunno if it has any traction with you, I don't know if it does with me to be honest, but would the "innocence of children must be protected" argument hold any water with you?

 

[Maze1125]

Seriously these adoptive parents have no right to keep the child from her real parents. The whole adoption thing wasn't actually official anyway.

So the parents aren't allowed to love her like their own daughter because the paperwork was a fake? Sound logic.

So her real parents have no right to have their daughter back? Someone can just kidnap your child give her to to someone else and you can't get them back? Love your logic there mate.

And what about the adoptive parents?
If you give her back to her biological parents then you're taking away the adoptive parents child.

Yeah, having your child taken away really really sucks, especially if there's no way to ever get them back.
So why are you advocating precisely that?

 

[orangeban]

I don't think it's too much of an assumption to assume the girl prefers the people she has been with for 5 years, and the country she has been in for 5 years, to a country and person she hasn't seen since she was 2.

OP says the little girl was 2 when she was kidnapped.

The article says she was kidnapped in November 2006 but wasn't adopted and didn't leave the country until December 2008. It's not as black and white as "this is the only life she's ever known."

Alright, but that doesn't change the fact she knows the adoptive parents better than the biological parent.

 

[Gatx]

I think she should just stay with whoever can offer her a better quality of life, I mean it would be what's best for the child right?

 

[Maze1125]

You're missing the point where the child was unlawfully removed from her home country. She is essentially still being kidnapped.

No, you're missing the point where the law is not the infallible arbiter of right and wrong.

 

[Risingblade]

Seriously these adoptive parents have no right to keep the child from her real parents. The whole adoption thing wasn't actually official anyway.

So the parents aren't allowed to love her like their own daughter because the paperwork was a fake? Sound logic.

So her real parents have no right to have their daughter back? Someone can just kidnap your child give her to to someone else and you can't get them back? Love your logic there mate.

And what about the adoptive parents?
If you give her back to her biological parents then you're taking away the adoptive parents child.

Yeah, having your child taken away really really sucks, especially if there's no way to ever get them back.
So why are you advocating precisely that?

It's a fucked up situation either way I'm just saying that since the adoption was illegal and she was kidnapped from them first she should go back to them. It's not like they just abandoned her and they obviously love her hence the 5 years of searching. I'm worried about the precedent this case might set. That suddenly it will be ok to keep kidnapped children if they've been with you long enough.

 

[Maze1125]

It's very simple, just answer this poll:

Kidnapping is wrong because...
a) The law says so.
b) It causes significant emotional damage and harm to the victim and victim's family.

If your answer is a, then the child should go back, if your answer is b, then the child should stay because to do anything else would be to cause the harm of kidnapping for a second time.

 

[Maze1125]

You're missing the point where the child was unlawfully removed from her home country. She is essentially still being kidnapped.

No, you're missing the point where the law is not the infallible arbiter of right and wrong.

To return a kidnapped child to her bioplogical parents or not to return a kidnapped child to her biological parents, why is this even a question?

Because some people can see beyond black and white.

 

[Matt King]

it's the biological parent, there is no arguing for the adoptive family, that women was her biological parent who had here torn away from her, it would hurt the adoptive family a hell of a lot less than it would hurt the real mother

 

[Maze1125]

it's the biological parent, there is no arguing for the adoptive family, that women was her biological parent who had here torn away from her, it would hurt the adoptive family a hell of a lot less than it would hurt the real mother

That's just crap.
Adoptive parents are just as attached to their children as biological parents. Statistically more-so in fact, as every single adoptive parent wanted a child, but no where near every biological parent does.

 

[Matt King]

it's the biological parent, there is no arguing for the adoptive family, that women was her biological parent who had here torn away from her, it would hurt the adoptive family a hell of a lot less than it would hurt the real mother

That's just crap.
Adoptive parents are just as attached to their children as biological parents. Statistically more-so in fact, as every single adoptive parent wanted a child, but no where near every biological parent does.

ok let's put it this way, your child was kidnapped and you are devestated, then a few years later it turns about she has been adopted and you are not allowed to have custody and that the adoptive parents get to keep her, that would destroy you
besides surely the biological parent has more right, i mean legally speaking, i don't know much about these laws, but it isn't like she put her up for adoption then changed her mind, wouldn't the law be on her side anyway?