Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights

What are Parental Rights?

The broad concept of parental rights generally refers to all of the rights that go hand in hand with raising children. The United States Supreme Court has recognized parental rights as a fundamental right under the Fourteenth Amendment, and has described these rights as the rights to make decisions about a child’s care, custody, and control. In some states, parental rights are specifically defined by law. In Virginia, for example, a statute defines parental rights. Under the Virginia statute, parental rights are defined to include the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing, the child’s education, and the child’s care. Maryland law does not include a specific definition of parental rights. However, Maryland law does contain some specific provisions that define and pertain to parental rights. For example, under Maryland law, parents are recognized to be the joint natural guardians of their minor children. Maryland law also provides that parents are jointly and severally responsible for the support, care, nurturing, welfare, and education of their children.

Termination of Parental Rights

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Child Information Gateway, the most common circumstances that lead to the termination of parental rights include:

• Abuse or neglect of the child or other children in the household
• Sexual abuse
• Abandonment
• A parent’s (or parents’) mental illness or deficiency
• A parent’s (or parents’) substance-induced incapacity
• A parent’s (or parents’) failure to support or keep in contact with the child
• The involuntary termination of parental rights with respect to another child

As Maryland’s highest court has noted, parental rights are not absolute. Parental rights can be terminated involuntarily. Recently, in the case of In Re Adoption/Guardianship of C.E., the Court of Appeals of Maryland reaffirmed the standard that governs termination of parental rights cases: the child’s best interests is the paramount goal. In this case, the court held that the juvenile court should not have declined to terminate the parental rights of a parent whom it determined could never safely care for his child. The court also found that the juvenile court erred by failing to recognize that an exceptional circumstance existed that warranted termination of parental rights in this case.

The child’s best interests standard is also contained in the relevant Maryland statute, Maryland Code, Family Law section 5-323, which is entitled Grant of Guardianship – Nonconsensual. This statute provides that the court may grant guardianship of a child if it finds that a parent is unfit or that exceptional circumstances exist that make it detrimental to the child’s best interests for the parental relationship to continue. The law does not define either parental unfitness or exceptional circumstances, but Maryland Code, Family Law section 5-323(d) does list a number of factors to be considered in determining whether termination of parental rights is in a child’s best interests, with the child’s overall health and safety the paramount concern.

If you have questions about termination of parental rights, or any other legal concerns regarding parent-child relationships, contact an experienced family lawyer at The Law Office of Robert R. Castro.