Walworth County Department of Health & Human Services v. Roberta J. W.

GUNDRUM, J.1

¶ 1. Terminating a parent's rights to his or her child affects some of that parent's most fundamental human rights. Evelyn C.R. v. Tykila S., 2001 WI 110, ¶ 20, 246 Wis. 2d 1, 629 N.W.2d 768. The permanency of termination orders "work[s] a *695unique kind of deprivation . . . involving] the awesome authority of the State to destroy permanently all legal recognition of the parental relationship." Id. (quoting M.L.B. v. S.L.J., 519 U.S. 102, 127-28 (1996)). "Although 'the best interests of the child' standard set forth in Wis. Stat. § 48.01(1) [2009-10] is a matter of paramount…