State Ex Rel. State Office for Services to Children & Families v. Ettinger

The state appeals from a judgment denying termination of mother’s parental rights to her four children. ORS 419B.500. We reverse.

This case presents a tragic example of the legacy of substance abuse that is passed from one generation to the next. Mother was born on April 5, 1970. In 1981, she witnessed her father commit suicide while he was under the influence of alcohol and “downers.” Mother’s own mother tried to kill herself by taking pills with whiskey when mother was nine or 10 years old. At the age of nine, mother began smoking marijuana and progressed to injecting cocaine and…