Parents Rights

A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that government officials investigating possible child abuse cannot conduct an invasive bodily search of a child without parental permission unless a judge has ruled in advance that such a search is warranted.

In the background, women's voices chant "Justice for Jessi, Justice for Jessi" while another woman sweetly sings: "I hear you deciding my future for me. But no one's asking me. My feelings are just as real as yours. " At once militant and sentimental, "Hear My Voice" is a promotional audiocassette of songs written and sung by musician Annie Rose of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Opening the courthouse door to a low-income woman who seeks the right to see her children again, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that states may not set high fees or other costs that effectively bar poor people from legal appeals in parental-rights cases. "No ties are more precious than those binding parent and child," said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking from the bench.

Surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson said Tuesday that she never expected she would have to forgo a mothering role in the life of the child she agreed to bear for an infertile Orange County couple, even though she signed a contract that prohibited her from trying to have a "parent-child relationship" with the baby.

Carl Dick is furious. After years of futile searching for the three daughters his ex-wife spirited away in 1983, he learned that the Orange County Social Services Agency knew where they were for three years but never contacted him. He finally located his children last year, when the Orange County district attorney's office filed suit against him as a deadbeat dad.

Dominique Moceanu had a smile that danced along with the music when the tiny gymnast, so small she seemed able to perform in the palm of your hand, competed at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. No one had more fun with her sport in Atlanta. No one seemed more suited to the job of being America's pixie. Now, two years later, we see Moceanu again. She is grown up, 17 years old, and there is no smile. There is a lawyer at her side and accusations of financial misdeeds made by her against her father.

An infertile Tustin couple involved in an unprecedented custody battle with a surrogate mother sued her and the lawyer who arranged the surrogacy contract Tuesday. Mark and Crispina Calvert filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against Anna M. Johnson, the surrogate mother, lawyer William W. Handel and his organization, the Center for Surrogate Parenting Inc., alleging fraud, breach of contract and infliction of emotional distress.

The California Supreme Court sided with grandparents and others who want to adopt children over their parents' objections in a pair of rulings that legal experts said would make it easier for guardians to prevail in adoption cases.

Abbie Dorn lies in a hospital bed in her parents' home on the South Carolina coast. A halo of dark curls frames her pale face. The pump for her feeding tube clicks softly in the quiet room. Yaakov Cohen, her older brother, settles into a folding chair by her side and begins to read. The subject is accounting. Interest payable. Bonds issued at a discount. Five-year amortization schedules. Abbie begins to cry. Yaakov smooths her forehead, "I know this is a little boring, Abs." She calms.

Nicholas Anderson spent most of his 19 years of life here, sharing a home with his mother. He was a funny kid with "the goofiest smile ever," a close friend recalls. He carried his sinewy, 6-foot-3-inch frame ramrod straight. He was a standout wrestler and a defensive lineman for his high school football team, the Bonanza Bengals. He loved Vegas; when he was half a world away in Iraq, he kept inviting his fellow Marines to come visit after the war.