Protest RCJ London

Wrongs that cannot be righted
Last Updated: 2:00am BST 02/07/2007



After three miscarriages, Rachel Drew finally gave birth to a girl, Charlotte, in October 1997. "She was a happy, bouncing baby, very bright and full of love," Miss Drew said.

But the 42-year-old, a single parent, had suffered mild schizophrenia when she was young which concerned social services enough to have her assessed by a consultant psychiatrist in 2001. He concluded: "Charlotte is a bright child who is happy and exuberant. She has a strong and affectionate relationship with her mother ... there is no risk of serious harm in the foreseeable future."

This did not seem to satisfy the council, in the east of England. It employed a second psychiatrist whose diagnosis was very different. On the basis of two meetings, lasting less than four hours, she found that Charlotte was at "serious risk" of emotional abuse by her mother. The council successfully applied for a forcible adoption order for Charlotte, then aged five.

advertisementCharlotte remained with her adoptive parents despite Miss Drew successfully appealing. Since the child had been with her new family for over a year, a judge said it would be "disruptive" to return her to her mother. Miss Drew said: "It feels like my child is dead."

As the judge decided not to allow details of the case to be made public, Miss Drew, whose name has been changed for legal reasons, had to break the law by speaking to the press.

Another mother, whose baby son was taken away after she was wrongly accused of harming him, had an abortion because she could not bear to have a second child removed. The first baby was taken into council care aged two months after doctors and social workers concluded that either the mother or father had deliberately shaken him.

While they fought in the courts to clear their names and get their son back, the mother fell pregnant again but decided on a termination. Medical experts only allowed the family, from Manchester, to be reunited 12 months later when they found that the baby's brain injury had been caused naturally before birth by a lack of oxygen in the womb. The family cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Adoption
• Forced
• Judges
• Social
• Services

[Katie1988xx]

You have no right to tell people what they can and cannot do with their bodies! People shouldn't be so dictating of others lives. People need to live and judge their own lives. People are reckless for getting pregnant in the first place, but everyone is their own person and has their own legally free piece of mind.

[foreveryoung5]

Thank you Katie but I think you have misunderstood the protest. This is about having your children stolen by the state and not having a fair trial to fight to keep them. Adoption is a multi million pound empire and should not operate this way.

[foreveryoung5]

Thank you we will

[CPSSucks]

In America, adoption was popularized by a vicious, sadistic, greedy lesbian, Georiga Tann - she made big bucks off of massive suffering. Nothing has changed in that regard.

[CPSSucks]

A suggestion: Don't wait for people to ask, just give them the paper - this slight intrusion can be forgiven, given the nature of the injustice suffered. You are doing everyone a favour when you protest against injustice - they should be thanking you.

[CPSSucks]

more and more I see that the problem is the people who walk on by.

[kortia]

Want the whole truth ?

secondfamily-uk dot com

[lindamac]

Hi Guys , Keep up the good work