Court allows foster parents to adopt 5-year-old boy; biological mother, who is in a halfway house, appeals decision

SINGAPORE — Even though there is “immense value and power of biology” in a parent-child relationship, a five-year-old boy would do better with his foster parents who have looked after him since he was born, a family court judge has ruled.

District Judge Shobha G Nair allowed the boy’s foster parents to adopt him rather than return him to his biological mother who has been jailed at least three times for drug-related offences and is currently at a halfway house.

The boy’s biological parents are appealing against the decision. 

None of the parties involved were named in court documents.

In her grounds of decision released on Wednesday (May 27), the judge outlined the risks and issues surrounding the boy’s biological family and how drug use can have a “devastating impact” on families. 

The boy and his twin sister were prematurely born in 2014, a few months after their biological mother had been released from prison.

Their biological father was then similarly in jail for drug-related offences. 

He is now awaiting trial over a capital drug trafficking charge.

The foster parents, who have two adult daughters, have taken care of the boy since he was discharged from KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

His sister, who has special needs, was placed in the care of another set of foster parents. They have not indicated if they wish to adopt her.

The twins were placed with foster parents after the biological parents signed a Voluntary Care Agreement. 

A medical social worker said that the biological mother did not visit the babies “regularly” while they were in hospital. 

When Child Protective Services visited her at her home in order to discuss long-term plans for the twins, they found her asleep. 

She had an agreement to visit the twins at least twice a week and managed to do so for a week before stopping, as her brother had been arrested and she was “preoccupied” with this.

In 2015, the twins’ biological parents went back behind bars for drug-related offences. When they were released around October that year, they remained uncontactable until January the next year.

The mother later claimed that she was uncontactable as she had to settle matters relating to a job and her romantic partner at that time.

In November 2016, the couple were again arrested for drug offences. 

The mother was sentenced to five years’ jail and will be released from the halfway home in August this year.

In her affidavit, she expressed disbelief in having to “defend myself as a mother”, saying she was in “emotional and financial distress” when she gave birth to the twins.

Besides the twins, she has an 18-year-old daughter identified as M, whom she had with another man, as well as a two-year-old son whom she had with the twins’ biological father. The other boy was born while she was in prison.

District Judge Nair pointed out that M has spent “most of her years in various homes and institutions” and that the extended family struggles with finances.

M had also dropped out of the Institute of Technical Education so that she could work and support the family. 

“Very little attention is paid to her needs,” the judge added.

While the mother agreed that the boy’s foster parents had looked after him well, she and the biological father said they were now ready to take him back.

Nevertheless, the judge said that if the boy is returned, his father would not be around and his mother “cannot be expected to be emotionally present for him immediately”. 

Given the Covid-19 pandemic, her prospects may not be promising and if she manages to find work, the boy would be taken care of by other family members, District Judge Nair added.

She found that the adults in the boy’s biological family were comfortable leaving their children with others as they worked through their challenges, as long as no ties between parent and child were permanently severed.

“Even this understanding of family could, of course, work. It works for many families. It cannot, however, work effectively in the context of a family torn apart by drugs.

“It similarly cannot work effectively where a child was abandoned at birth and who, by this fact, was separated from his twin sister and who will continue not to know all his siblings and half siblings,” the judge added.

The boy will also begin attending primary school soon and the need for a safe environment and sufficient encouragement to do well in school “augurs well for his future”, the judge wrote.

“I shared in my oral grounds… that one should not be too sceptical of the immense value and power of biology in the parent-child relationship. I repeat that view here. 

“Research is largely supportive of the position that a child’s identity formation and self-knowledge make the parent-child relationship one of the most precious of all human relationships, and should be interfered with only if it serves the child better,” she added.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of the article said that the twins were taken in by the same set of foster parents. This is incorrect. They were put in the care of different foster parents. We are sorry for the error.