Search

Unlike natural conception and other assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy involves three crucial factors: family legislation, family ethics, and reproductive technology. This makes the determination of parentage in surrogacy more complex. In China, surrogacy is completely prohibited by law. However, this prohibition has not diminished the interest in discussions around the family ethics, order, and relationships affected by surrogacy. In practice, disputes over parentage and child custody arising from surrogacy urgently need resolution through judicial practice. The current legal framework in China lacks clear regulations to address the complexities of surrogacy, leading to numerous unresolved disputes. To address this issue, it is advisable for China to enact clear legislative measures to govern parent-child relationships in surrogacy cases. This paper presents legislative recommendations for regulating surrogacy in China, with the hope that the judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Court of China can provide clear legal regulations on surrogacy during revisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, neither reproduction and parenthood by lesbian couples nor their marital status are regulated or protected by law. In 2020, the first legal dispute in China involving a lesbian couple over custody of their joint baby was heard in court. This study examines the legal and ethical issues that lesbian couples confront when they decide to give birth to a child of their own. These challenges begin with regulatory restrictions on their lawful access to assisted reproductive technology and extend to gaps in the legal establishment of parenthood. We found that the lack of access to legitimate reproductive assistance for lesbian couples in China has caused them to make efforts to circumvent laws and regulations to have a child. However, the legislative gaps later led to ethical dilemmas when resolving disputes over parenthood. This study discusses different accounts of establishing and determining natural parenthood in China and concludes by pointing out the urgent need for change in legislative and sociocultural attitudes toward both assisted reproductive technology and same‐sex relationships, mapping the way forward for lesbian couples to obtain better protection of procreation and parenthood before their marriage is culturally accepted and finally legalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child custody cases post-parental separation entail inherent complexities and uncertainties for legal experts and decision-makers, and are influenced by context factors. This study sheds light on how legal actors (i.e., judges, prosecutors, lawyers, psychologists, and social workers) navigate the uncertainties that arise in such context and, therefore, make their decisions. Based on a reflexive thematic analysis involving 73 participants from Brazil and England, this study reveals cognitive strategies employed by legal actors to comprehend uncertainty and operate in the decision-making context. These strategies encompass heuristics (i.e., selection, evaluation, degrees of freedom, and outsourcing decisions/resolution) and metacognitive strategies (custodial arrangements, professional practices and 'best interests of the child' speech). These results provide a window into the decision-making processes in child custody cases; they offer a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted sensemaking strategies employed by legal professionals. The results carry substantial implications for informing and improving legal practice in handling complex child custody situations. Furthermore, this study charts new paths for future research by highlighting potential avenues for refining and advancing the strategies employed by legal experts in these cases, especially considering the child's best interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a quantitative analysis of a novel dataset comprising 10,093 publicly available judgments of adjudicated child custody disputes from the China Judgments Online website, this article identifies potential gender bias in Chinese family courts under certain conditions. Key findings include: 1. Mothers are generally more proactive in seeking custody and are awarded custody in the majority of cases compared to fathers. 2. Specifically, mothers have a significant advantage in cases involving daughters, while their advantage in cases involving sons is less pronounced. 3. In rural courts, the results are notably different: mothers are disadvantaged overall, fathers are particularly assertive in seeking custody of sons compared to daughters, and mothers are less likely than fathers to be awarded custody of sons. Building on existing literature, this study highlights potential judicial biases rooted in societal gender norms prevalent in rural areas. This raises questions about whether courts have achieved substantive gender equality and whether the legal principle of 'the best interests of the child' is consistently upheld in every court decision. This study enhances the understanding of gender bias within China's family court system by providing valuable insights for those interested in addressing gender inequality. It not only highlights specific challenges women face in custody cases but also calls for broader societal and policy changes to support women and combat gender discrimination in all its forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Dutch parents with children divorce, a mediator compiles a matrix with the financial needs of the children and the financial capacities of parents to meet these needs. Moreover, in case parents have children from previous marriages or are prepared to contribute to stepchildren, a bipartite graph shows which parent is financially responsible for which child. The Dutch high court ruled that the final contributions should be proportionally consistent, implying that shortages for children should be prevented if possible and any remaining parental capacities should be proportionally divided among parents responsible for the same child. Finding by hand this proportional solution is difficult for realistic court cases, as these can include several (step)parents and children. The paper on the divorced-parents problem shows that the final unique solution can be found when parents start court cases iteratively and provides efficient algorithms that can deal with large (country-size) networks. When Dutch parents divorce, Dutch law dictates that the parental contributions to cover the financial needs of the children have to be proportionally consistent. This rule is clear when parents only have common children. However, cases can be considerably more complicated, for example, when parents have financial responsibilities to children from previous marriages. We show that, mathematically, this settlement problem can be modeled as a bipartite rationing problem for which a unique global proportionally proportional solution exists. Moreover, we develop two efficient algorithms for obtaining this proportionally proportional solution, and we show numerically that both algorithms are considerably faster than standard convex optimization techniques. The first algorithm is a novel tailor-made fixed-point iteration algorithm (FPA), whereas the second algorithm only iteratively applies simple lawsuits involving a single child and its parents. The inspiration for this latter algorithm comes from our main convergence proof in which we show that iteratively applying settlements on smaller subnetworks eventually leads to the same settlement on the network as a whole. This has significant societal importance because, in practice, lawsuits are often only held between two or a few parents. Moreover, our iterative algorithm is easy to understand, also by parents, legal counselors, and judges, which is crucial for its acceptance in practice. Finally, as the method provides a unique solution to any dispute, it removes the legal inequality perceived by parents. Consequently, it may considerably reduce the workload of courts because parents and lawyers can compute the proportionally proportional parental contributions before bringing their case to court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children in custodial settings are a vulnerable group. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic there were concerns about the safety of children in these settings. COVID-19 has had an impact on everyone but given the vulnerability of children in custody, there were concerns about the impact of COVID-19 restrictions. All custody settings for children are independently inspected and this research aimed to analyse data from inspection reports. Twenty-six inspection reports undertaken between March 2020 and October 2021 were analysed to understand the impact of COVID-19 on delivery of usual care/regime. Results: Data showed that across all site's children spent considerable amounts of time isolated and in some cases, this was deemed to amount to solitary confinement. There was evidence of some positive experiences, in the smaller sites, around COVID-19 slowing the pace of life allowing staff and children could foster relationships. However, in the larger sites, isolation was extreme and COVID-19 policies such as 'bubbles' appear to have created unintended consequences as sites have moved into recovery, leading to increased violence and stress. COVID-19 directly impacted staffing levels. This and the COVID-19 policies to reduce mixing also had an impact on how children's behaviour, welfare and safeguarding was managed. In some larger sites, being COVID-19 secure was prioritised over the needs of the children. Conclusions: This research highlights the importance of multi-site longitudinal research to understand how children, staff and institution's function. The experiences of children in custody during COVID-19 differed by site type. The research suggests that the larger sites are struggling to keep children safe and there should be a shift towards smaller, more therapeutic environments. More research is needed to understand the longer-term unintended consequences of COVID-19 policy in custody, for these vulnerable children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Direito e Práxis is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Qur'an, serving as the primary source of guidance for Muslims, offers a comprehensive framework that safeguards the rights of mothers and provides counsel on a multitude of facets pertaining to the lives of mothers. The 21st principle underscores the government's responsibility to ensure women's rights in accordance with Islamic principles. This includes providing assistance to mothers, particularly during pregnancy and child custody matters, and appointing guardianship of children to deserving mothers as compensation for their envy in the event of Although it was not, it is nonetheless regarded as Shari'i.Consequently, the right to custody is governed by Article 1169 BC, Article 946 BC governs the right to the mother's inheritance, and Article 1107 BC governs the right to the mother's alimony. This article employs a descriptive-analytical approach to examine the Quranic underpinnings of maternal rights from a social perspective, in accordance with clause 2 of Article 21 of the Constitution. Consequently, the objective of this article is to analyze the Quranic underpinnings of certain societal rights pertaining to mothers, as explicated in the Quran and the Iranian legal system in a thoroughly documented and argued fashion. Through an analysis of the Qur'anic verses in conjunction with Clause 2, Article 21 of the Constitution concerning the social rights of the mother, it was determined that these rights are consistent with the principles outlined in the Quran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the integration of artificial intelligence in legal practice, discussing the ethical and practical issues that arise and how it affects customary legal procedures. It emphasises the shift from labour-intensive legal practice to technology-enhanced methods, with a focus on artificial intelligence's potential to improve access to legal services and streamline legal procedures. This discussion importantly highlights the ethical challenges introduced by the integration of Artificial Intelligence, with a specific focus on issues of bias and transparency. These ethical concerns become particularly paramount in the context of sensitive legal areas, including but not limited to, child custody disputes, criminal justice, and divorce settlements. It underscores the critical need for maintaining ethical vigilance, advocating for developing and implementing AI systems characterised by a profound commitment to ethical integrity. This approach is vital to guarantee fairness and uphold transparency across all judicial proceedings. The study advocates for a "human in the loop" strategy that combines human knowledge and AI techniques to mitigate biases and guarantee individualised legal results to ensure AI functions as a complement rather than a replacement, the paper concludes by emphasising the necessity of preserving the human element in legal practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article seeks to analyze in an analytical way by referring to library sources and based on the methodology of legal knowledge, in addition to paying attention to the results of the efforts of jurists, the effect of the issue of chastity with the focus on the observance and non-observance of hijab by the mother in the matter of child custody. Especially for the girl, report on the legal aspect and explain its role in enjoying the condition of moral health of the mother who is responsible for custody and explain the relationship that he finds with titles such as justice, depravity and trustworthiness of the guardian in the issue of moral degeneration and deprivation of custody. Articles achievement indicates that, from the jurisprudential-legal aspect, a level of mother's hijab is effective in ensuring the child's moral health and the mother's possession of the necessary moral conditions in the matter of child custody, and it can play a role in his chastity under description of chastity. Even if his righteousness and non-debauchery cannot be considered a condition of custody. Based on this, if the non-observance of the mother's hijab is enough to put the chaste upbringing of the child in serious danger according to the prevailing Sharia and customs; He is no longer a guardian in the matter of custody of the child, and the continuation of such custody leads to harm to the child, and therefore custody can be taken away from him. It should be noted that despite the passage of more than half a century since the sexual revolution in the West and the occurrence of nudity pests in these societies, today we are witnessing efforts, especially by families, to treat the aforementioned complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Restatement of Children and the Law features a strong endorsement of parents' rights to the care, custody, and control of their children because parents' rights are generally good for children. Building on that foundation, the Restatement's sections on child neglect and abuse law would resolve several jurisdictional splits in favor of greater protections for family integrity, thus protecting more families against the harms that come from state intervention, especially state separation of parents from children. But a close read of the Restatement shows that it only goes so far. It is not likely to significantly reduce the wide variation in practice by jurisdiction, nor will it satisfy calls for a more fundamental transformation of the legal system. For instance, the Restatement requires consideration of the harm of removing children from their parents, without explaining how to weigh that against possible harms of remaining at home. It provides that poverty alone does not amount to neglect, without providing much guidance on the difficult question of how to implement that principle. The Restatement creates a clear preference for placement with relatives over strangers, without clarifying what suffices to overcome those preferences. It recognizes a right of parents and children separated by the state to visit with "frequency," without defining that term. This analysis is not a criticism of the Restatement--by codifying existing law, it does what the Restatement should do. Rather, this analysis highlights how this Restatement can contribute to child neglect and abuse law in the present context. It can help nudge the law in a modestly improved direction and highlight areas that require more transformative legal changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Penalizing Prevention: The Paradoxical Legal Treatment of Preventative Medicine" by Doron Dorfman explores how preventive medicine is both endorsed and penalized by the law. The author argues that preventive medicine is often stigmatized and penalized due to perceived risks associated with users' behavior and character. The article provides case studies on the regulation of HIV prophylactic drug PrEP, mental health treatment, and the public use of the opioid reverser naloxone to demonstrate how the law penalizes prevention. The author calls for harmonizing the legal regulation of preventive medicine to allow for its important goals to be achieved. [Extracted from the article]

The article compares the integration of customary law in Nigeria and South Africa as applicable to custody and family law disputes. Topics discussed include challenges posed by customary law on family law, international legal treaties like the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, repugnancy doctrine, marriage, divorce and child custody in Nigeria, and operation of customary courts, divorce and child custody under the South African customary law.

As throuples and other forms of polyamorous relationships gain visibility and acceptance, courts will have to confront the legal issues that will likely arise when a throuple forms and when it dissolves. How should courts determine child custody for three equally situated parents? How should courts divide assets among three people who have cohabitated in a marriage-like relationship? This Note describes some of the legal problems throuples are most likely to encounter, especially regarding child custody and division of assets. This Note outlines some of the ideal solutions to these problems, such as forming contracts with the help of an attorney. Lastly, this Note argues that courts should expand family law doctrines for unmarried cohabitants to include throuples as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a number of jurisdictions have enacted laws recognizing that a child may have more than two legal parents (multi-parentage). Recognition of multi-parentage represents a significant change to the legal framework governing parentage--for most of U.S. history, it was well established that a child could have a maximum of two legal parents. While commentators undoubtedly will continue to debate the wisdom of multi-parentage recognition, it is clear both that multi-parentage has arrived and that its arrival raises many novel and important questions across a variety of areas of the law. Proponents and opponents of multi-parentage agree that child custody represents one of the core areas in which multi-parentage recognition will raise complicated questions that warrant careful consideration. It is inevitable that, just as child custody disputes arise in two-parent families, such disputes also will occur in multi-parent families. As a result, legislatures and courts soon will face the task of deciding how to approach custody disputes involving children who have more than two legal parents. This Article examines a number of the core initial questions that multi-parentage recognition will raise in the child custody context. These questions include: (1) whether parents who share an intact relationship and are involved in a dispute with another parent should be considered a single entity or separate entities for purposes of the custody determination; (2) whether legal standards employing presumptions in favor of joint custody, which have become increasingly popular in the two-parent custody context, should extend to multi-parent custody disputes; and (3) to what degree the law should encourage settlement and defer to agreements reached by the parties in multi-parent custody disputes. The Article concludes by setting forth detailed proposals regarding how lawmakers and courts should resolve these essential questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyse the Hungarian family law rules regarding parental agreements on children's parental custody, contact and child maintenance, including their high legal and judicial requirements and strict standards. Parents are regularly supported to agree on issues concerning their children in cases when they no longer live together, as this corresponds to the principle of autonomy. However, they must enter into agreements that meet the requirements of the child's best interests regardless of whether they lived in marriage or de facto cohabitation. The agreements must serve the interests of the partners and those of the child but not only at the time of concluding the agreement but also later. The question emerges of how either partner may request the agreement to be modified if the parents cannot agree new terms. Several aspects of the regulation, such as the judiciary, need to be considered and envisaged to evaluate the legal environment of parental agreements. This investigation is validated by the fact that it is not only the parents' but also the state's task to support the conclusion of agreements that protect the parties and their child's interests and, if necessary, make the amendment of agreements possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the project was to find out how the opinions of minor children are ascertained in proceedings in which they are participants, what techniques are used, and whether (and to what extent) the courts take the ascertained opinions into account when making decisions that affect the children's future life. The rights of children to adequate participation in court proceedings mainly results from the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The paper discusses how the child's opinion is ascertained depending on his or her age, the methods of ascertaining the child's opinion, including the specific techniques that may be used and, last but not least, the importance of ascertaining the child's opinion for the justification of the judgment. The results of the research show the crucial role of an authority of social and legal protection of children as a conflict guardian, and also point out that it's necessary to pay constant attention to the actual realization of the rights of minors. In the Czech Republic the determination of the opinions of minors is well anchored in the legislation, but reality does not always correspond to this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research delves into the issue of the reasons behind a child's entitlement to the expenses of their relatives, including its conditions and impediments, within the regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hanbali School, along with its judicial applications. The primary objective is to elucidate these reasons, conditions, and impediments in both Saudi regulations and the Hanbali School through a descriptive study that highlights jurisprudence. The research concludes that, while there is agreement between the doctrine and the regulations on several issues, the Saudi regulator has not consistently adhered to the doctrine of the Hanbali. As a recommendation, the research emphasizes the necessity for the Personal Status System to provide a comprehensive explanation of jurisprudence and its connection to the legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research note, we demonstrate that trends in the likelihood of child support agreements differ by marital history (i.e., never-married vs. ever-married) and by whether measures rely on the stock of families (i.e., allthose in which children live apart from a parent) or the flow (i.e., those that include children who newly live apart from a parent) in a given year. While previous research has highlighted difference by marital history, the contrast between stock and flow is a new contribution. Trends are typically measured with reference to the stock of cases, even while the flow of cases, which more immediately reflects concurrent policy changes, is more relevant in many contexts. Interpretations of recent declines in child support agreements in the stock of cases--referenced as evidence for both mandating participation and the impracticality of requiring child support-- may be better informed by considering the flow of cases. We find the flow of previously married mothers increasingly likely to have child support agreements while the likelihood is relatively consistent over time for nevermarried mothers. For both groups, using the flow measure, we find notable increases in agreements without payments due in the most recent period. These findings underscore the importance of differentiating stock and flow, and by marital history, in considering the proportion with agreements as an indicator of the effectiveness of current policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on managing parental disagreement in a case where a 14-year-old child diagnosed with ADHD is on medication, and the father, who has been absent due to imprisonment, disagrees with the treatment. Topics include assessing the child's capacity for consent (Gillick competence), the role of both parents in decision-making, and considerations regarding the release of the child's medical records amid disagreement.

The article focuses on the impact of the legalization of recreational marijuana on custody matters in Minnesota, U.S. It explores how family courts navigate issues such as parental marijuana use, impairment testing, implicit biases, and precedents from other states. It discusses the need for clearer guidelines and ongoing research into the effects of marijuana on parenting and child behavior.

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Luridica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examined the associations of grandparent–grandchild relational closeness and conflict with grandchildren's socioemotional and behavioral problems, including emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, and abnormal prosocial behaviors. We analyzed primary cross-sectional survey data collected from custodial grandparents in the United States using logistic regression models. The results indicated that grandparent–grandchild relational closeness was significantly associated with lower odds of custodial grandchildren having emotional symptoms, conduct problems, peer problems, and abnormal prosocial behaviors, whereas grandparent–grandchild relational conflict was significantly associated with higher odds of emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, and abnormal prosocial behaviors. Implications for increasing grandparent–grandchild relational closeness and decreasing relational conflicts among grandparent-headed families are discussed, which might improve grandchildren's socioemotional and behavioral well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Direito e Práxis is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although there have been attempts to understand and curtail coercive control and to understand parental alienation, many parents are still being gaslit by a system designed to protect them. There have been considerable changes in Canada to the federal Divorce Act and the definition of family violence, but the "friendly parent" and "maximum contact" principles remain, despite lip service given towards the best interests of the child. This paper attempts to examine if enough is being done to understand the intersection of coercive control and parental alienation, and the "feminized irrationality" which deems protective mothers hysterical and not worthy of credibility. The intersection of coercive control and parental alienation has had such divergent research because of an antiquated conclusion that women use false allegations of abuse to secure custody of their children. Even though this has been roundly dismissed, many courts still grapple with whether there is deceit amidst domestic violence accusations. Mental health support systems, children's aid associations, and the police are being used as weapons of oppression for many women. The result is that courts dealing with the custody of children have great difficulty awarding decision-making authority to someone who is unregulated and deemed pathologically (and somehow inappropriately) concerned for her children. These organizations may be, perhaps unwittingly, using their power to debilitate further women who are simply trying to protect their children. The case study of IS v. TC is informative about how these principles were weaponized against an Indigenous mother who was characterized, without evidence, as lacking credibility and suffering from various mental disorders. Ultimately, the court ordered reunification with the father, who had alleged parental alienation, and the child was prevented from contacting his mother for a significant period. The paper finishes with an exploration of what might be done to help this problem, emphasizing the mediation model and further screening for domestic violence. Perhaps if all lawyers are screening for the signs of intimate partner violence, they can be part of the solution rather than perpetuating harmful stereotypes of mothers which abound in the family law system in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista CIENCIA UNEMI is the property of Universidad Estatal de Milagro (UNEMI) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of this study is to approach the opinion that men and women have about the type of custody desired to be established in the event of marital breakdown, an aspect that has not been analyzed in Spain until now. Methodological triangulation is used for this purpose using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results indicate that aspects such as the gender of the spouses, ideology or income level are key to understanding what type of custody is desired in the event of divorce. The main conclusion highlights the existence of a dissonance between the most desired custody option after the breakup of the couple and what actually happens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The childcare system in Lithuania is going through extensive changes in order to ensure the preparation and assessment of people who want to care for or adopt a child, on-call guardians have appeared, care centres have started operating in all municipalities, a unified agreement of guardians (carers), on-call guardians, adoptive parents and community children has been approved, as has the GIMK training and counselling programme for nursing home workers. Individuals who want to become a child’s guardian are trained and evaluated, and mutual support groups have started being organised. This is one of the measures aimed at strengthening, supporting and providing assistance to guardians (care givers), and there is an opportunity to solve issues relating to child custody. There are more and more guardians (care givers) who face difficulties in communicating with the ward, their relationship is strained, and the child experiences learning and adaptation difficulties, as a result of which the guardianship process is becoming more and more complicated. The current problem is manifestations of non-constructive behaviour that arise in adolescence, which worsen if these problems are not solved. A frequent guardian (carer) turns to care centre specialists, social workers and psychologists for help. Children’s guardians (carers) need constant qualified assistance from specialists and the state, because only in this way can guardians properly and competently perform their duty and meet the child’s needs and interests. This article analyses the experience of a mutual support group for care givers, and presents a qualitative study. The results of the study confirm the effectiveness of this type of support, and allow us to predict and design other support measures for care givers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child abuse is a dangerous situation for an infant. Professionals need to weigh the risk of failing to act when children are seriously harmed against the serious harm done by carrying out safeguarding interventions. In severe cases, foster care might be advisable. The negative effects for the child's psychosocial development requires that such placement must be based on very solid evidence. Our aim is to identify why Dutch parents whose child may have a medical condition that could mimic symptoms of child abuse have a significant chance of being erroneously convicted and losing custody of their child. As a method, we describe and analyze the following case. An Armenian-Dutch newborn (uncomplicated term vaginal delivery), starting at two weeks after birth, developed small bruises on varying body locations. At two months, a Well-Baby Clinic physician referred the girl to a university hospital, mentioning that there were no reasons to suspect child abuse and that her Armenian grandmother easily bruised as well. However, before consultation by a pediatrician of the hospital-located Expertise Center for Child Abuse, the parents were suspected of child abuse. Based on the expertise center's protocols, skeletal X-rays were made, which showed three healed, asymptomatic rib fractures, while invalid statistics suggested, incorrectly, a 10–100 times more likely non-accidental than accidental cause of the symptoms (discussed in Part II of this series). The expertise enter physician ignored any argument that could show parental innocence, including the positive parent-child relationship reported by the Well-Baby Clinic and the general practitioner. The girl and her older brother were placed in a family foster home and then in a secret home. The case radically resolved when a large bruise also developed there, and an independent tissue disease specialist diagnosed a hereditary connective tissue disorder in the mother, implying that the girl's bruises and rib fractures could well be disease-related. In conclusion, if child abuse is suspected, and foster care placement considered, the patient and the parents should be thoroughly investigated by an independent experienced pediatrician together with an experienced pediatric clinical psychologist or psychotherapist to produce an independent opinion. Children deserve this extra safeguard before being separated from their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]