Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Lawyers for both sets of parents said the high court's action clears the way for another hearing to determine who will finally get custody of the boy known as ``Baby Richard.'' An aide to Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar said that, because of a newly enacted state law, a judge will consider what is in the ``best interest of the child.''
The case has renewed a national debate over the adequacy of state adoption laws in an era when more than 1.2 million children are born each year to unmarried women.
In the past, the high court has said that fathers, whether married or not, have a constitutional right to act as parents, but state laws also say that babies can be put up for adoption by the mother if the father does not step forward within a certain period, such as 30 days from the child's birth.
Baby Richard's case illustrates the trouble that can arise if the mother hides the news of the baby's birth from the biological father.
In 1989, Daniella Janikova moved to Chicago from her native Czechoslovakia and went to work at a restaurant managed by another Czech immigrant, Otakar Kirchner. A year later, the 24-year-old woman was living in Kirchner's apartment and had become pregnant.
But shortly before the baby's birth, Kirchner returned to Czechoslovakia to care for his sick grandmother, and his aunt told Janikova he had resumed a romantic relationship with a former girlfriend.
Angry, the young woman moved out and on March 16, 1991, gave birth to a baby boy. She told Kirchner that the baby had died. In fact, she put him up for adoption four days after his birth.
In May 1991, Kirchner learned the truth and contacted a lawyer to assert his parental rights.
by CNB