Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 4, 1993 TAG: 9307040073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANN ARBOR, MICH. LENGTH: Medium
A couple sobbed Saturday as they told reporters they would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a court order to give the toddler they've considered their daughter to her birth parents.
They maintained that love and commitment - not biology - should determine who is designated by law to be a parent.
"There is only one reality. And that is the definition of parenting," Roberta DeBoer said. "That is an action. It's not a title given to anyone because you have blood.
"It's a title given because you care, nurture and bring a child up. A child addresses people who care for her on a constant basis as Mom and Dad.
"I hope Dan and Cara realize there is no replacement for Mom and Dad," she said, referring to 2-year-old Jessica's biological parents, Daniel and Cara Schmidt of Blairstown, Iowa.
Shortly after giving birth in February 1991, Cara Schmidt, then unmarried, signed adoption papers for the baby. When she told Daniel Schmidt about the child a few weeks after the birth, they started legal action to get her back, arguing he had never signed away his parental rights. They later married.
Iowa courts gave the Schmidts custody of the child, but the DeBoers brought the case to Michigan.
The DeBoers' lawyer, Suellyn Scarnecchia, conceded there was little chance the high court would reverse the Michigan Supreme Court ruling because Iowa's Supreme Court had earlier reached the same conclusion.
Jan and Roberta DeBoer were told to hand Jessica over to the Schmidts by Aug. 2, she said.
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Friday that it was "cognizant of the heartache which this decision will ultimately cause," but the law left little alternative.
The 6-1 ruling said federal child custody and parental kidnapping laws gave Michigan courts no jurisdiction in the case. It ordered the DeBoers to return Jessica to the Schmidts.
"I'm overwhelmed - very joyful. I'm just glad she'll be coming home," Daniel Schmidt said after the decision.
"Parents should be entitled to raise their children. You can't just come and take them away."
The DeBoers said the courts ignored the rights of adoptive parents. The Ann Arbor couple have had custody of the little girl since shortly after birth and fought unsuccessfully for two years to adopt her.
"No matter what the biological parents have done, the unwritten law of biology still supersedes reality," DeBoer said. "We are considered second-class citizens."
The DeBoers' lawyer criticized the Schmidts' role in the transfer.
Scarnecchia said the court recommended that the Schmidts arrange meetings with the child in Michigan before she's moved, but the Iowa couple said that would be impossible because Cara Schmidt had a baby June 23.
"They have begged for visitation in the past, but now they are saying it's inconvenient," Scarnecchia said.
by CNB