Christina Maldonado Case Study

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Dusten Brown proposed to Christina Maldonado in December of 2008. At that time, they did not know they were going to be expecting their first child together. In January of 2009, Christina informed Dusten of her pregnancy. Dusten asked Christina if they could move the date of marriage closer so they could be married before the birth of their new baby. Dusten refused to support Christina financially until after their marriage, which never happened. Soon after, their relationship spiraled into disaster and the couple split up. Left to take care of herself in addition to her unborn child, Christina had a tough decision to make. After the break up, Christina employed an attorney to assist her in the possible adoption of her unborn child …show more content…

During that time, the ICWA applied to the case. “The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is a federal law that seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families.” The IWCA applied to the case because of the father’s heritage and membership within the Cherokee Nation. During the court proceeding, the family court denied the adoptive couple’s plea for adoption. The adoptive couple argued that the father had shown no interest in the minor child and that he had not provided support. Eventually, the family court decided that the Brown’s evidence proved that he did not voluntarily consent to the termination of his parental rights. The adoptive couple “failed to prove with clear and convincing evidence that [the] Father’s parental rights should be terminated or that granting [the] custody of [Veronica] would result in serious emotional or physical damage to [Veronica].” In December 2011, the court granted the father guardianship of Veronica; later that month, the he took …show more content…

The opinion of the court determined that “a biological Indian father could abandon his child in utero and refuse any support for the birth mother—perhaps contributing to the mother’s decision to put the child up for adoption—and then could play his ICWA trump card at the eleventh hour to override the mother’s decision and the child’s best interests.” Brown, nor his family, made an effort to be a part of the child’s life before the adoptive couple filed paperwork; therefore, the destruction of an Indian family would not be relevant in the decision-making

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