What in the world does a 60 yr old man want with twin girls?
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An Indiana appeals court soon will begin reviewing in secret the case of a single 60-year-old New Jersey man who hired a surrogate mother to deliver twin girls for him.
The Indianapolis Star on Thursday filed a petition to open records in the case, which is pitting Indiana's adoption secrecy law against the public's right to know how the courts do business.
Indiana's adoption community was roiled by the adoptions of Kathy Zee and Karen Zaria Melinger that followed their premature births at Methodist Hospital in April 2005.
Today, the girls are almost 2 and living in Union City, N.J., with their adoptive father, Stephen F. Melinger.
The Indiana Department of Child Services is challenging the Melinger adoptions. Child welfare officials have told the Indiana Court of Appeals they intend to question whether the children were hard to place and thus eligible for an out-of-state adoption, according to a person who has seen the court filings. Hard-to-place children can have issues such as a physical or mental disability or a health problem.
State officials also have told the court there were violations of interstate laws meant to ensure children placed for adoption across state lines end up in safe homes.
The Star, in its petition, said the public's interest would be served by having the legal debate take place in public.
"There is an incredible amount of interest in the issue of adoption," Star Editor Dennis Ryerson said. "This one raises critical questions about child welfare, how the courts operate, and guardians ad litem. There is a public interest in knowing if things worked as they should have."
The girls' adoptions drew the state's attention after hospital employees raised concerns about Melinger's ability to care for the girls before they were discharged from a neonatal intensive-care unit.
He showed up in Methodist's neonatal unit to visit the girls with a live bird in the left sleeve of his suit jacket and, later, bird feces on his clothing.
A juvenile court judge allowed public access in 2005 to the Melinger child welfare case file, which included information about the adoptions, citing the legal and ethical issues raised by the case. Several months later, a different trial judge removed the child welfare file from public view.
The clerk of Indiana's appellate courts, Kevin S. Smith, won't disclose records in the appeal, citing a state law that makes adoption filings strictly secret. Some Indiana lawmakers say his stance takes their goal of creating a zone of privacy around adoptions too far.
Should adoption records be open to public disclosure or not? In NJ, newspapers will post the re-sale price paid for a house by it's new owners, and have pages filled with wedding and birth announcements. I would think a new child purchased for a family's home is just as news-worthy. If for no other reason, it would be neat to see what the going-rate for a child is these days. After all, if Adoption Services are doing their job, ensuring safe homes for orphaned children, why would there be a need for secrecy? That IS what Adoption if for, right? Helping orphaned children adapt to the loss of their entire family?
1941 Jul 9