Unfair custody accords know no sexual orientation

THE SAD story of Eric Hyett and Joshua Glazer's breakup, custody battle, and international child abduction is not really unusual. The family courts, as usual, gave primary physical custody to the stay-at-home parent, and marginalized the role of the breadwinner. Happens all the time. When parents are forced out of the lives of their children, a few make really bad decisions, such as kidnapping their child. Clark Rockefeller and Eric Hyett - not much different.

Mothers and fathers kidnap their children in about equal numbers. One way to reduce parental kidnappings is to abolish the win-lose child custody system and replace it with shared parenting. This would not prevent power-hungry or narcissistic parents from abducting their children, but it would help in other cases. The US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reports that children in truly joint physical custody are at much lower risk of being abducted.

NED HOLSTEIN
Executive director
Fathers & Families
Boston