Quote Originally Posted by Kralizec View Post
Excuse me: WTF?

Adoption is heavily regulated for good reasons. And the standards expected of people who want to adopt are a lot heavier than those expected from biological parents (i.e. the threshold before child protection agencies bust your door)

From what I've read the defense story sounds more like they were acting as guardians in place of the real parents - but there are rules for that, also.

If their story is true it might be reason enough to charge them with a lesser offense or maybe not charge them at all. But what they did was certainly not okay.
Yes, I fully support our behemoth government administration, and believe that every aspect of our lives should be scrutinized by the government. I am a socialist, after all.

Still, I cannot get all worked up over people reverting to less formal ways of doing things. It's been the norm until very recently, after all. I only need to go back to my grandmother to find examples of the same practice. Had I been from the north, I wouldn't even have to go back further than the post-war years. Parents got lost at sea, the children were taken care of by friends, without bothering to involve any authorities.