New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services v. I.S.

In this ease, a father was ordered to forfeit his parental rights to his natural son because he did not rush forward quickly enough, in the trial court’s and Appellate Division’s view, to take on fully and solely the care and custody of that child. The record demonstrates that the revelation that he had an out-of-wedlock child rocked his stable and successful marriage. Faced with the nearly impossible choice between attempting to salvage that marriage— which had served as the center for successfully nui’turing four other children, three to adulthood—or instantly asserting his right to take on…