Babies switched at birth (RAR/poll)

[AniThyng]

Of course at the time hindsight was not available, but it does look that in retrospect the joint custody option might actually have worked somehow. I think it's somewhat interesting that in this case at least after the clarifications some of the assumptions made e.g. abusiveness and so on, since a worse case scenario would result in a sort of situation where the non-biological son was mistreated vis-a-vis the biological son. Again of course that seems to be hindsight - I can certainly see why without that benefit of such knowledge we would not want to give the parents pushing for the trial any child whatsoever.

*edit* Also interesting that for what its worth, the parents that didn't want the switch also in their own way were showing a kind of love for thier biological child by refusing to disrupt *his* life even if that meant they would get him back. That's a kind of selflessness that...ironically I think sort of validates their worthiness to be the parents.

[Mayabird]

Umm, people? I'm not sure where some of you are getting these automatic assumptions of abuse except from a bad reading of my post. I was pointing out the greatly increased possibility of abuse, not saying that the couple that didn't want the child actually was abusive. Many stepparents treat their stepchildren like they are their own children and that's good. It's very possible that the couple wouldn't have been bad, moral enough not to vent their (understandable) rage on the child even if they had ample opportunity.

[Lagmonster]

These parents knew from the very second they were given the wrong child. Take a wild guess what that did to their emotional attachment. They were given the wrong child and immediately complained. They were told "tough shit".

Yes, and the parents have every right to get pissed off at the hospital. However, only a disgusting asshole would fail to notice their responsibility to the kid they were stuck with.

And your going to blame them for not forming an emotional attachment on a child they know isn't theirs when they tried to fix the situation immediately and repeatedly only to be rebuffed at every single avenue, for SEVEN YEARS.

Yeah, I would. I'd call them callous pricks and selfish assholes even while acknowledging that they're also victims. Nobody *wants* to get stuck with a bum deal in life, but when you're in said bum deal and there's no way out, you find a way to meet the responsibilities you've been saddled with.