Officials try to seize sex offender's baby

[friesianrider]

I'm kinda torn on this...thoughts? If a woman (or man I suppose) has a child with a convicted rapist, are authorities justified in stepping in to take the child? What if a woman has a baby with a convicted child molester (and of course, the convicted child molester will be raising the baby too)?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/10/21/sexoffender.custody.ap/index.html

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Child-welfare officials obtained an emergency court order to seize a baby just 24 hours after he was born, contending the infant would be unsafe because his father is a convicted sex offender.

The hospital, however, refused to hand over the infant so soon after birth, according to a lawyer representing the mother, Melissa WolfHawk.

WolfHawk, 31, is due in court Friday for a hearing, said Mary Catherine Roper, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the mother.

The child was born Tuesday, and Schuylkill County Children and Youth Services was granted the order Wednesday.

The agency expressed concerns that the boy could be in danger because his 53-year-old father, DaiShin WolfHawk, was convicted of rape and sodomy more than two decades ago in New York.

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[bertha katzenengel]

1. Hard to say. My instant reaction was "FUCK YES, get that kid outta there."

But I honestly don't know what I think about this. It does seem very wrong. OTOH....

[flvegan]

2. Tough one, but I think that CNN is trying

to draw more attention by using the "sex offender" tag in the headline. From the article, both parents have some darkness in their pasts (he's a convicted rapist of two teenage girls, she's allegedly used coke, meth and been a prostitute). Does that indicate that they'd be bad parents? I don't know. Probably lots of really good parents out there that have ugly pasts as well.

Personally, I think the child-welfare officials might be jumping the gun, but that's based only on what the article states.

[Mutley]

3. It doesn't seem right...

but it's also not right to wait until something happens to the kid. I just don't know what to think about this...

[In_The_Wind]

4. more than two decades ago ....

If the man has changed his ways - he deserves a chance for a new life. There must be more to this story.