Should a Stage 4 Cancer Patient Lose Custody of Her Children for Her Illness?
Alaina Giordano's story first came to my attention last week in the same way that it came to many others: Facebook. Alaina lives just one town away from me in Durham, NC, so I have tracked her story over the course of the past week. But hers was not just any story - it was a public outreach for help that has sparked emotion in thousands of people as her Facebook page travels through the realms of the social stratosphere.
You see, Alaina has Stage 4 breast cancer. On April 25, 2011 a North Carolina Judge awarded custody of her two children, ages 11 and 5, to Alaina's ex-husband due to an uncertainty in the amount of time she will live, stating that children with a terminally ill parent should spend more time with the parent who is not ill. The judge also cited that Alaina being unemployed was a factor in her decision to award custody to the father.
Because of this ruling, Alaina's children will relocate to Chicago under the primary custody of their father in June unless her petition is successful and the ruling is appealed before the 30 day deadline, a short two weeks away. As with thousands of others who are supporting Alaina, I too was outraged at this news. It took me back to a time when I was a small child absorbing the wisdom of my Grandmother, and one sentence I will never be able to forget: "It's not the quantity of life, it's the quality of it."
Should a Mother Lose Custody of Her Kids Because She Has Cancer?
Alaina's Facebook page, Alaina Giordano Should Not Lose Her Kids Because She Has Breast Cancer, has amassed over 12,000 followers and 11,000 signatures on her petition, which she hopes will prevent her from losing her children. Perhaps more impressive, however, is the sheer abundance of emotion that this page has sparked. The idea of a mother losing her children is hard enough to wrap our heads around sometimes, but there's something blatantly cold-hearted about taking children away from a woman who has a disease she could have never foreseen, let alone gain control over it.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati