In re Shaiesha O.

Opinion

BISHOP, J.

The rights of children to protection from harm and to placement in a nurturing environment are core values of our society. So, too, is the right of parents to raise their children without undue government interference. When these values conflict, the court’s task is as Herculean as it is vital. Since the severance by the state of a parent-child relationship implicates fundamental rights and the termination of a parent’s rights is a creature of statute, it is “essential that a parental termination can be decreed only in both strict and literal compliance with the applicable…