Court Opinion

ID: 9743924
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:50:15.64678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:45.600006
License: Public Domain

*399Goodman, J.
(concurring in result). I concur because, as pointed out in the majority opinion, the application of G. L. c. 119, §§ 1 and 24, would lead to the result reached in this case. See Alegato, v. Commonwealth, 353 Mass. 287, 304. It seems to me that these legislative standards are more appropriate than such suggestions as may be found in the cases cited in the majority opinion, all of which involved determinations as to which of two competing individuals was entitled to custody rather than the application of a standard to a parent from whom, as in this case, an agency was attempting to take a child. The Legislature in establishing these standards (St. 1954, c. 646) seems to have anticipated the view expressed in In Re Gault, 387 U. S. 1, 18, that “unbridled discretion, however benevolently motivated, is frequently a poor substitute for principle ... [and that] [t]he absence of substantive standards has not necessarily meant that children [and parents] receive careful, compassionate, individualiz ed treatment. ’ ’