In re Price

Rees, J.:

This is an appeal from an order severing parental rights. The principal question presented is whether a parent may have his or her parental rights severed when the parent has never had custody of the child. Here, the child was placed in the temporary custody of the State Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services when he was discharged from the hospital on February 15, 1980, nineteen days after his birth. On March 7, 1980, the boy was found to be a deprived child. Thereafter, on October 28,1980, the parents were found unfit and an order was made permanently depriving them of…