William Shakespeare once said, “It is a wise father who knows his child” The New York Legislature is taking this quote by the Bard very literally. A new law was put into effect in January, called the Parental Equity Act. This law is a big departure from prior New York laws relating to consent rights for unwed biological father to contest their child’s adoption. 

 It was written by Amy Maltzer, a senior attorney with Brooklyn Defenders or Services with the help from New York University Law Professor Christin Gottlieb.  The law aims to bring fairness to birth fathers by granting full-and-fair hearings regarding their fitness to care for children who were moved into foster care by the state.  The law took effect immediately.  Previously, a biological father was entitled to contest an adoption only if he maintained a certain level of contact with the child and also paid support.  

The basis for this new law was to combat the difference between unwed mothers’ rights to contest an adoption and married fathers versus unmarried fathers.  This law also follows the continuing trend in the law to recognize the importance of children to have both of their parents in their lives. The information that is being provided by psychologists and sociologists stress of the importance of children maintaining contact with not only their mothers, but their fathers as well to develop in a healthy way. Fathers’ rights advocates are in favor of this bill and rightly so. 

 The goal of foster care is to reunite the children with their parents after they receive the necessary services and are able to care for them.  If they cannot do that after a certain period of time, then their parental rights are terminated, and the child can become free for adoption.  The New York Attorneys for Adoption and Family Formation was against this bill, stating that it’s going to become much more difficult to free children up for adoption. 

 There is an awareness and a fear of children remaining in foster care until age 18. Sadly, time goes by without the reunification of the parents. These children are never freed for adoption and then once they are, they are too old. There is a fine line between balancing the rights of children to be adopted and given a home versus children being able to be reunited with their parents, even a father who may not have been in the picture at the beginning; but stepped forward and wants to establish the parental relationship that both he and the child are entitled to.  

The opponents of this bill argued that New York always had a child-centered approach.  However, that must be balanced with the rights of parents. Moreover, child-centered approach should first be for children to know their biological parents both mother and father if possible, and to assist the parents, so that they can take care of them, rather than freeing children for adoption in foster care.  That should be the last resort.