In The Best Interest Of The Children

"The least detrimental alternative", the authors' seminal principle for safeguarding a child's growth and development by minimizing intrusions of the law, has been cited in more than 1,000 child custody cases since 1973.

Topical and compelling, this volume provides an excellent re-evaluation of the ‘best interests’ test in the healthcare arena; the ways in which it has developed, the inherent difficulties in its use and its interpretation in legal cases concerning the medical care of children. Comprehensively covering both the English and Scottish position within the context of the European Convention of human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the author examines a wide range of healthcare situations, from the commonly occurring to the unusual, offering a detailed analysis of legislation, case law, cases and their implications. It includes discussions on: the extent to which a child’s body can be examined, operated on and affected by medicines, devices or procedures intended to bring about medical change the appropriate scope of parental choice and authority and at what stage of their development children should be allowed to make their own decisions the response to situations where the interests of children may be in conflict – the cases of conjoined twins or the donation of organs to siblings. This work is a key resource for postgraduates and researchers working and studying in the fields of law, healthcare and medicine.

This updated edition consolidates all child-centred legislation, from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child through to the Referendum on Children's Rights 2012, in an easy-to-understand format.

Three distinguished authorities in law, psychiatry, and child development critically evaluate current child placement laws.

'In the best interest of the children' describes the author's experience of his daughters' adoption in the US. For Belgium to recognize this adoption, the author's family even had to take the Belgian State to Court. This far-reaching experience encouraged the author to reflect about the topic of international adoption. Why is adoption being treated as a suspicious institution by the same agencies which claim to act only in 'the best interest of the children'? This book denounces the practices described above, and calls for action to change them. Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, Morris Wasserstein Professor at Law, Faculty Director Child Advocacy Program, Harvard Law School: "Key forces mounting the attack [against international adoption] claim the child human rights mantle, arguing that such adoption denies heritage rights, and often involves abusive practices. Many nations assert rights to hold onto the children born within their borders, and others support these demands citing subsidiarity principles. But children's most basic human rights to family are at the heart of the true meaning of subsidiarity, and children will often find family only in international adoption. This book is important because it tells the story about how governments and government officials, claiming to represent the best interest of the children, prevent good people from giving children the nurturing home they so desperately need. We need more adoptive parents like this to speak up and help change current international adoption policies and practices in the best interest of the children."

The second volume in a classic trilogy of reference works often cited in child custody cases, which introduced the concept of the “least detrimental alternative” when addressing a child’s welfare. The second volume in a classic trilogy of works by Joseph Goldstein, former Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School; Albert J. Solnit, the former director of the Yale Child Study Center, and Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud. These texts (Beyond the Best Interests of the Child was the first in the series, and In the Best Interests of the Child was the third) are classic references often cited in child custody cases; Before the Best Interests of the Child specifically addresses when the state should intervene. Rather than the familiar legal "best interests of the child" doctrine, the authors’s work is based on the more realistic standard of finding the "least detrimental alternative." This is indispensable reading for social workers, family court judges, lawyers, psychologists, and parents.

This text examines the application of the standard of the best interests of the child in the context of international law. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises the best interests standard as being one of its guiding principles. The question of whether the best interests standard succeeds in reaching this goal is the central theme of this book. The point of departure for this analysis is that of the best interest standard being a Western notion based on an idea of the child as an innocent in need of protection. However, difficulties arise when the best interests standard has to be applied to a child who does not fit these criteria. Consideration is then given to the malleability of the standard which allows it to overcome such difficulties and to justify its position as one of the guiding principles underpinning children's rights at the domestic and international level.

This brief examines the U.S. foster care system and seeks to explain why the foster care system functions as it does and how it can be improved to serve the best interest of children. It defines and evaluates key challenges that undermine child safety and well-being in the current foster care system. Chapters highlight the competing values and priorities of the system as well as the pros and cons for the use of foster care. In addition, chapters assess whether the performance objectives in which states are evaluated by the federal government are sufficient to achieve positive health and well-being outcomes for children who experience foster care. Finally, it offers recommendations for improving the system and maximizing positive outcomes. Topics featured in this brief include: Legal aspects of removal and placement of children in foster care. The effectiveness of prior efforts to reform foster care. The regulation and quality of foster homes. Support for youth aging out of the foster care system. Racial and ethnic disparities in the foster care system. Foster Care and the Best Interests of the Child is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.