Department for Human Resources v. R.G.

GANT, Justice.

This action involves competing adoptive parents who have taken disparate routes in seeking to adopt a profoundly mentally retarded and physically handicapped child. The facts of the case are basically undisputed.

The parental rights of both parents of this child were terminated about 1971; the child was committed to the Department for Human Resources at that time, and the Jefferson Circuit Court awarded the full custody, care and control to the Departs ment. The child had been under institutional care for most of his almost 14 years, the last facility being Outwood Treatment…