LilMtnCbn
04-14-2004, 03:16 PM
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=58&story_id=6606
French court rejects bid by Irish mother
to reclaim baby she abandoned to adoption
LILLE, France, April 14 (AFP) - France's highest appeals court has rejected a
bid by an Irish woman to reclaim a baby girl she gave up for adoption two years
ago, saying her change of mind came too late.
The Cour de Cassation overturned a lower court's verdict last year that Karen
Taher, 37, should be able to retract her written abandonment of the girl and
take custody from the family in which the child had been placed.
The high court, in its April 6 decision, found that the legal limit of two
months for such decisions had passed, leaving Taher no further recourse in
France to reclaim the infant, the woman's lawyer, Pierre-Yves Rossignol, said.
Taher, contacted by telephone, called the final verdict "abominable" and vowed
to take her fight to the European Court of Human Rights.
Her new lawyer, Thomas Haas, said Taher could argue that she did not receive a
fair hearing and that her case was handled "very strangely" by French
officials.
"Essentially, this is about working out whether the French system of births
under 'X' is compatible with the requirements of the European Convention on
Human Rights, such as the right to family life and the right of a child to know
where it came from," he said.
He said his client "feels like she has been the victim of institutionalised
kidnapping."
Taher's baby was born in France on February 18, 2002 with a birth certificate
designating her parents as "X" - a French legal term for persons unknown.
The baby was the result of an extramarital affair Taher had.
A regional official had lodged the appeal against Taher because he believed
removing the child from the French family which had adopted it was "an
extremely delicate matter".
A French social welfare official, Patrick Tillie, said that, although a lower
court had established that Taher was the biological mother, her decision to not
formally register herself as such meant that, under French law, she could not
be considered the parent.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
French court rejects bid by Irish mother
to reclaim baby she abandoned to adoption
LILLE, France, April 14 (AFP) - France's highest appeals court has rejected a
bid by an Irish woman to reclaim a baby girl she gave up for adoption two years
ago, saying her change of mind came too late.
The Cour de Cassation overturned a lower court's verdict last year that Karen
Taher, 37, should be able to retract her written abandonment of the girl and
take custody from the family in which the child had been placed.
The high court, in its April 6 decision, found that the legal limit of two
months for such decisions had passed, leaving Taher no further recourse in
France to reclaim the infant, the woman's lawyer, Pierre-Yves Rossignol, said.
Taher, contacted by telephone, called the final verdict "abominable" and vowed
to take her fight to the European Court of Human Rights.
Her new lawyer, Thomas Haas, said Taher could argue that she did not receive a
fair hearing and that her case was handled "very strangely" by French
officials.
"Essentially, this is about working out whether the French system of births
under 'X' is compatible with the requirements of the European Convention on
Human Rights, such as the right to family life and the right of a child to know
where it came from," he said.
He said his client "feels like she has been the victim of institutionalised
kidnapping."
Taher's baby was born in France on February 18, 2002 with a birth certificate
designating her parents as "X" - a French legal term for persons unknown.
The baby was the result of an extramarital affair Taher had.
A regional official had lodged the appeal against Taher because he believed
removing the child from the French family which had adopted it was "an
extremely delicate matter".
A French social welfare official, Patrick Tillie, said that, although a lower
court had established that Taher was the biological mother, her decision to not
formally register herself as such meant that, under French law, she could not
be considered the parent.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
