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When One Parent Goes And The Other Parent Stays: The Inconsistency And Inequity Of Guaranteeing Absent Parents Permanent Parental Rights, Wendee M. Hilderbrand

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is well settled that the right to make decisions concerning the upbringing of one's children is a fundamental right deserving the utmost constitutional protection from unreasonable state interference. It has also become increasingly well settled over the past twenty-five years that this right is not automatically and permanently guaranteed by biology. Rather, parental stature encompasses both "rights and responsibilities," and the rights are only guaranteed to a parent who has assumed parental responsibilities. Why then is a responsible custodial parent subject to state interference with his or her parental decisions in the interest of guaranteeing an absent parent, who …