Documents indicate that in the 1980s there was an unprecedented shift in laws and customs concerning custody and adoption. A married couple adopting a child (source: Webster) was perhaps not so unusual even before that time, but by the ’80s a single elderly man could adopt two young boys (source: Diff’rent Strokes) easily, or a young girl (source: Punky Brewster) with some difficulty. Nell Harper adopted Joey Donovan while his father was yet living (source: Gimme a Break), and Beverly Anne Stickle adopted Andy Moffet, even though his being an orphan was a something called a “retcon” that overthrew “several seasons of continuity,” whatever that means (source: Facts of Life). Even robots could be legally adopted (source: Small Wonder). Meanwhile millionaire Edward W. Stratton III was able to claim custody of the child he never knew he had without having recourse to the courts and apparently without the mother’s knowledge (source: Silver Spoons). The custody issues evoked by “Schrödinger’s fatherhood” (source: My Two Dads) still deserves more study.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:07:39 +0000