A child: lost, found, and lost again.

[The Mad Monk]

Scene I: A child, age 2, is snatched off the street; the kidnappers never leave any kind of message. The child's mother starts to search for the child, never giving up.

Scene II: The child, now age 3, is in another country, with different culture and language. The child is adopted by loving parents who believe the adoption to be totally legal and above board.

Scene III: The natural mother locates the child, now age 8, and demands the child's return. The adoptive parents refuse.

I've stripped most of the details, just to get to the heart of the question -- who should keep this child?

No matter the choice, someone will lose.

[OzzyKP]

How about you ask the kid?

[Jon Miller]

In the US there is an advocate for the child which considers the child's best interests.

JM

[Jon Miller]

In the US there is an advocate for the child which considers the child's best interests.

JM

[The Mad Monk]

Ozzy: Then you find for the adoptive parents.

Jon: who said anything about the US? I want to know how you would decide.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

depends on whether the adoption was actually legal. which i doubt. the legal answer would thus be 'natural'. at this stage however it is not in the child's best interests any more to go back. a judge might decide that the child would benefit most from staying in current conditions.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

if it were my child, however, i would kidnap it back.

[OzzyKP]

Ozzy: Then you find for the adoptive parents.

Jon: who said anything about the US? I want to know how you would decide.

Most likely, yea, the kid would stay with the only parents they've known. As long as they get to decide, then its probably the best situation.

[Wiglaf]

How could you ask the kid? Kids can't even speak English at 8. Do you also ask your dog if it'd like to go to a movie with you.

[Ming]

Yep... many people will Lose.
But I have to go with the real mother. She didn't give the kid up, it was kidnapped. No matter how you want to spin the next adoption, the child isn't theirs.
The real mother has the right to her child which trumps ANYTHING ELSE.

(Interesting that you say the child was adopted by loving parents, but there is no mention of "loving" when it comes to the original mother)

[The Mad Monk]

Probably an oversight, but I felt "The child's mother starts to search for the child, never giving up." was sufficient.

[Ming]

I was just wondering if later in the discussion, you were then going to add that the mother was a crack addict, or some other fact that would make here an unfit mother.

[The Mad Monk]

No, no twists like that. I just want to see how people react to the situation, without complications like nationality coming in. It is a real story, and I will put the details in around this time tomorrow, if the press doesn't beat me to it.

[Hauldren Collider]

I would do it the King Solomon way and give each of them half.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

found it. had to be tejas of course.