Court Opinion

ID: 9764285
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:18:12.002905+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:55.480166
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I must dissent. The majority holds that the state may constitutionally terminate the parental rights of a parent if that parent, without fault, is incapacitated, and the incapacity prevents the parent from taking care of that parent’s children. The state does not have such a dangerous and far-reaching right over its citizens. Suppose a parent is incapacitated, without fault, as the result of an automobile accident, or a heart attack, or an injury received during a war? Under the majority’s holding, if such a parent cannot take care of his or her children, the state may terminate parental rights. To state the issue is to answer it. The state can constitutionally have no such right.
We are not in this case concerned with custody. Of course, if a parent is incapacitated, a benevolent and protec*370tive state may help that parent by providing care for the children outside of the parent’s custody. The termination of parental rights, however, means that the child is dead so far as that parent is concerned. I cannot, as does the majority, make a valued judgment that a child will grow up to be a better adult if that child is cut off from its natural parents who áre not able, without fault, to care for the child.