California Family Law: The Washington Times reported this week that California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed legislation today that would have allowed children to have more than two legal parents. If a judge determined it to be in the “best interest of the child”, he/she would have been able to recognize more than two parents.
The bill would have “allowed a previous custodial or biological parent to have parental rights and take care of a child if the two current legal parents are no longer capable, as long as doing so is required to protect the child’s best interests.”
Governor Brown urged supporters to change the bill to prevent unintended consequences. Proponents of the bill state that the law must catch up with the current society, and that the legal system doesn’t have the right capacity to help children who end up with no alternatives but government-run foster care. For this reason, they believe a caring guardian/adult with a previous relationship with the child should have the right to be his/her legal parent.
The bill was reportedly meant to catch up California family law with the modern society: surrogate parenting, in vitro fertilization, same-sex marriages, various forms of domestic partnerships, step parenting, adoption, etc.
It’s unclear what “unintended consequences” Gov. Brown was referring to, but we hope modern law continues to take a close look at what bills best serve the needs of all children in our current society.