Opinion ID: 1177856
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Defining the Standard

Text: The termination-of-parental-rights statutes under which this action was brought, §§ 14-2-301 to 14-2-307, W.S. 1977, provide in part: Any parent who abandons a child ... or abuses or neglects a child may have his permanent care, control and custody of the child transferred to some other person, agency or institution and may have all his parental rights to the child terminated. § 14-2-301. However, § 14-2-306, W.S. 1977, provides: (a) After the hearing, if the court determines it is in the best interest of the child that parental rights of his parents be terminated, the court shall appoint a suitable person to serve as guardian of the child. (b) If any child is abandoned, neglected or abused by one (1) parent, only the rights of the parent at fault may be terminated. At the outset, this presents us with a problem of statutory construction: How do we harmonize the best interest language of § 14-2-306(a) with the abandonment, abuse or neglect standards of § 14-2-306(b) and § 14-2-301? (Section 14-2-307(a) also contains best-interest language but is prefaced with the phrase, upon petition of any parent... . See fn. 5, supra.) We believe that the best-interest language must be read in para materia with the abuse, neglect or abandonment standard. This means, for example, that if the State seeks to terminate parental rights because of neglect, the State must show that the interests of the child require termination of the parental rights in order to protect the child from neglect. It will not do for the State to fail to prove neglect but to argue that the natural parents, because of a low socio-economic standing, cannot provide the child with all the advantages that more affluent, better-educated foster parents could provide. This conclusion follows from a literal reading of § 14-2-301, supra. In addition, as discussed below, federal and state constitutional considerations would also mandate this conclusion. However, we are still left with a difficult question. Because this case involves a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial judge's finding, we must resolve the question of what standard is used to determine if the natural parent has abused or neglected her child, so as to justify and require termination of parental rights in order to protect the child's interests. This issue was before us in Matter of C.M., supra, at 556 P.2d 518; and see In re Shreve, Wyo., 432 P.2d 271 (1967). However, we did not, in those appeals, undertake to define the standard against which a claim of parental abuse or neglect will be examined. Because of the extremely delicate nature of parental-rights-termination matters, we seize upon this opportunity to establish, for bench and bar, guides and standards which will, hopefully, point the way in this and future cases. The Termination-of-Parental-Rights statutes do not define abuse or neglect. However, elsewhere in Title 14 the legislature has defined abuse: § 14-3-202. Definitions. (a) As used in W.S. 14-3-201 through 14-3-215: ... (ii) `Abuse' means inflicting or causing physical or mental injury, harm or imminent danger to the physical or mental health or welfare of a child other than by accidental means, including abandonment, excessive or unreasonable corporal punishment, malnutrition or substantial risk thereof by reason of intentional or unintentional neglect, and the commission or allowing the commission of a sexual offense against a child as defined by law., and neglect: (vii) `Neglect' means a failure or refusal by those responsible for the child's welfare to provide adequate care, maintenance, supervision, education or medical, surgical or any other care necessary for the child's well being. Treatment given in good faith by spiritual means alone, through prayer, by a duly accredited practitioner in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination is not child neglect for that reason alone; In addition, we are helped in our task by a large body of state and federal constitutional law defining the interests individuals have in their family associations. The right to associate with one's immediate family is a fundamental liberty protected by the state and federal constitutions. Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972) (integrity of the family unit protected by the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment); and Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 634, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 22 L.Ed.2d 600 (1969) (implication that liberties guaranteed by the federal constitution are fundamental). See, also, State ex rel. Heller v. Miller, 61 Ohio St. 6, 399 N.E.2d 66 (1980). Analysis of the Wyoming Constitution and case law also leads to the conclusion that the right to associate with one's family is a fundamental liberty. Article 1, Sections 2, 6, 7 and 36, Wyoming Constitution; Washakie County School District Number One v. Herschler, Wyo., 606 P.2d 310 (1980); Matter of Adoption of Voss, Wyo., 550 P.2d 481 (1976); and In re Adoption of Strauser, 65 Wyo. 98, 196 P.2d 862 (1948). In analyzing legislative classifications, we have held that if a fundamental liberty interest is infringed the classification will be subject to strict scrutiny. Washakie County School District Number One, supra. See, also, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 17, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973). The constitutionality of the parental-rights-termination statutes is not in issue in this case and the two cases just cited are, therefore, not strictly applicable. However, it appears to us that the same considerations which require strict scrutiny of the statute require strict scrutiny of the statute's application. In other words, the trial judge trying a parental-rights-termination case must strictly scrutinize a claim of abuse or neglect or abandonment before terminating parental rights (a fundamental liberty). The trial judge is not free to terminate parental rights merely because the State or other petitioner shows that it is more probable than not that the natural parent is abusing or neglecting the child. We have not found support in the case law for a standard cast in terms of strict scrutiny. However, where courts have undertaken to terminate the parent-child relationship, the scrutiny has, to say the least, in fact been strict. In Matter of Adoption of Voss, supra, and In re Adoption of Strauser, supra, we were called upon to determine if, as a matter of law, the natural father could be said to have abandoned his child or children. In Voss, we said: ... [A]doption statutes are strictly construed when the proceeding is against a non-consenting parent and every reasonable intendment is made in favor of that parent's claims ... There is a reason for that tenet. Paraphrasing . .., the earliest and most hallowed of the ties that bind humanity, in all countries considered sacred, is the relationship of parent and child... 550 P.2d at 485. In In re Adoption of Strauser, supra, we held that the welfare of the child (his best interests) is a question which should not be reached until parental abandonment is actually proved. 196 P.2d at 868. Similarly, the United States Supreme Court recently observed: We have little doubt that the Due Process Clause would be offended `[i]f a State were to attempt to force the breakup of a natural family ... without some showing of unfitness and for the sole reason that to do so was thought to be in the children's best interest.' [Citation omitted.]... . Quilloin v. Walcott, 434 U.S. 246, 255, 98 S.Ct. 549, 555, 54 L.Ed.2d 511 (1978). See, also, Linn v. Linn, Neb., 286 N.W.2d 765 (1980). It may be that in matters such as this, lawyers, judges, parents  all of us  should digress from the ordinary course of things to contemplate how deeply seated the child-parent relationship is in the warp and woof of the American fabric. In this matter, where the law must decide whether a child will be separated from his mother, we have looked to the Declaration of Independence for guidance. We find the following familiar language to be helpful: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed, ... While no complete listing of the unalienable rights endowed upon us can be easily defined  it is not, we suggest, too fantastic to assume that the rearing of our children might be one example of the pursuit of happiness that the founding fathers envisioned. If we accept this hypothesis, then it becomes important to recognize that the rights described in both the state and federal constitutions were formulated to protect the Declaration of Independence. This surely adds significance to the strict-scrutiny concept in matters affecting the rights of parents to rear their children. In view of the above authorities and reasoning, we hold that a court may not terminate parental rights because of abuse or neglect unless the abuse or neglect renders the parent unfit in the context that such abuse or neglect poses a serious danger to the child's physical or mental well-being, i.e., clearly detrimental to the child. Thus, for example, punishment which may seem severe but which does not harm, is not such abuse as will suffice under § 14-2-301 to terminate parental rights. Similarly, slovenliness in keeping a young child clean or his home in good order may offend many of us and may, by some, be characterized as neglect, but is not such neglect  assuming no serious health effect or risk  as will justify termination of parental rights. We admonish that the burden of proving neglect or abuse is upon him who seeks to take the child from the parent. We emphasize that the trial court and the appellate court will strictly scrutinize claims that a natural parent is unfit because of abuse or neglect. This means that the court's duty to protect the child will be balanced against its duty to protect democratic values. It means that termination of parental rights cannot be ordered on the grounds of abuse or neglect unless the showing is clear and unequivocal that the child's health  mental or physical  and/or his social or educational well-being has actually been placed in jeopardy through the neglect or abuse by the parent.