Opinion ID: 2402160
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Kayla's Best Interests

Text: The respondents contend on appeal that, even if this Court should uphold (as indeed we do) the hearing justice's determination that Dawn and Irving are unfit, he nevertheless erred in finding that the termination of their parental rights was in Kayla's best interests. We disagree with this contention. In arguing that terminating the parental rights of Dawn and Irving is contrary to Kayla's best interests, respondents have brought to our attention the following passage from an article in the Harvard Law Review: No child should be endangered by the foolhardy suggestion that he can thrive solely on the love of a parent, but neither should that parent's love be diminished by an insensitive, mechanistic process that singlemindedly extols the virtues of rationality. Robert L. Hayman, Jr., Presumptions of Justice: Law, Politics, and the Mentally Retarded Parent, 103 Harv. L.Rev. 1201, 1257 (1990). No one would contend that there is any shortage of love for this child emanating from any of the persons involved in this heart-wrenching case. If Kayla could thrive solely on her parents' love, the hearing justice's analysis of her best interests may have been different. It is our view, however, that, far from undervaluing the parents' love in the instant case by resorting to an insensitive, mechanistic process, the hearing justice, who aptly described the case as one involving a situation which is fraught with heartbreaking emotions, painstakingly articulated his findings in a very comprehensive decision and reached a conclusion that we consider to be sustainable. We perceive no clear error in the hearing justice's best interests determination. In particular, it is our view that he properly saw much significance in the fact that Kayla has bonded with her half-sister and with her foster family, with whom she has lived since her birth more than six years ago. While not giving exclusive weight to that factor, the hearing justice appropriately considered the preservation of that bond in determining where the best interests of the child lie in this case. After carefully considering the record, we affirm the hearing justice's determination with respect to Kayla's best interests.