Maintaining the legal status of people with intellectual disabilities as parents: The ADA and the CRPD

• Published in: Family court review Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 21 - 36
• Main Author: Francis, Leslie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2019; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: and Termination of Parental Rights; Best Interests of the Child; Capacity and disability; Children with disabilities; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); DISABILITY; Domestic relations; FAMILY LAW; Intellectual Disabilities; LEGAL CAPACITY; MENTAL HEALTH; Mental health laws; Parental Rights; PARENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES; Parents & parenting; Parents with disabilities; PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES; People with mental disabilities; Supported Decision Making; UNITED STATES; Intellectual Disabilities; Best Interests of the Child; Parental Rights; Supported Decision Making; Termination of Parental Rights; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• ISSN: 1531-2445; 1744-1617
• DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12395

People with intellectual disabilities face proceedings to terminate their parental rights with disturbing regularity, with protecting the interests of offspring the primary justification. Although protecting children from harm is surely critical, these termination proceedings involve problematic assumptions about how fitness to parent is understood, how parenting is legally constructed, and what nondiscrimination requires for parents with intellectual disabilities. Using Article 12 of the 'Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities' as a model, it suggests two alternatives to the all-or-nothing termination processes in place today that might better realize the enjoyment of legal capacity as parents on an equal basis with others for people with intellectual disabilities: limited terminations analogous to limited guardianships and supported parenting along the lines of supported decision making proposed in the CRPD.