Court grants custody of baby to bureau
Print Edition
A COURT in east China’s Jiangsu Province has given custody of an 8-month-old boy to the provincial civil affairs bureau after ruling that neither parent was capable of raising the child.
It was the first time a court had appointed a government department to be the guardian of a minor in Jiangsu, the Modern Express reported yesterday.
Usually in divorce cases, custody of children goes to one of the parents or their families.
The newspaper report said the father, whose name was not revealed in court, had filed for divorce at the Zhenjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone Court in July citing marital conflicts caused by poverty.
After granting the divorce, the court said it found some difficulty in ruling on custody of the boy as the father, 33, was almost blind and his 28-year-old wife, who was also not named in court, had learning difficulties.
Both parents are unemployed and live on government subsidies, the court heard.
Children who are still breastfeeding are usually given to the mothers in divorce cases.
But the court said that it couldn’t give custody of the boy to the mother due to her disabilities.
Giving custody to the father wasn’t an option either because of his visual impairment.
The boy’s grandparents were also said to be incapable of taking care of the baby as they were too old and sick, the court said.
Yang Liu, the judge in the divorce case, said the court then thought of the civil affairs department, which can also be a guardian of the child according to Chinese law.
Yang said the court had asked the parents for their opinions and both said they wanted to get help for their son.
However, there are no laws and regulations specifying how to change the guardianship of a minor to the civil affairs bureau and under which conditions the guardianship can be changed, Yang said. He said that the court had contacted the Jiangsu Civil Affairs Bureau and discussed the baby’s situation.
Li Zhengyun, director of the civil affairs bureau’s social welfare and social affairs department, told the newspaper that the bureau agreed to be the guardian of the boy on Wednesday.
The report said custody of the boy was assigned to the bureau in a special trial.
A medical examination found the boy to be blind and have epilepsy.
The report said the boy will be cared for by a social welfare institute under the bureau. Later, he could be adopted.
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