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Notre Dame Law School

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Full-Text Articles in Law

How Much Does Legal Status Matter? Adoptions By Kin Caregivers, Margaret F. Brinig, Steven L. Nock Jan 2002

How Much Does Legal Status Matter? Adoptions By Kin Caregivers, Margaret F. Brinig, Steven L. Nock

Journal Articles

Virtually all the legislation dealing with families that include children begins with a "best interests of the child" premise.' Most, if not all, of the litigated results at least seem to maximize the outcomes for adults. This discrepancy should not be surprising, for both substantive and procedural reasons.

The substantive reason, as even the Supreme Court has noted, is that most of the time, what is good for parents will also be good for children. Moreover, having parents who possess many "rights" allow them to better exercise their parental responsibilities. From a procedural perspective, adults are usually the named parties …


Finite Horizons: The American Family, Margaret F. Brinig Jan 1994

Finite Horizons: The American Family, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

In the summer of 1992, while I was reading and thinking about Martha Minow's latest book, I was struck with my double role as a responsible adult. Vacationing in the north woods of Wisconsin with my mother, I suddenly needed to care for her as well as my own small children. Generational connections, important before, swelled hugely in crisis. As I caught my breath between hospital runs and kids' activities, I was thankful that I had received so much from my parents during my childhood. And I resolved to rethink the relationships between parents and children, adults and elderly.

Policy …