• 31
  • August
    2011

When the economy is in sour state, as it has been for the past few years, everyone feels the pinch. It is especially tough for parents who may not be able to buy their children new shoes for school or birthday gifts because of financial pressures. Sadly, it seems the economy is to blame for a recent incident in Minnesota that will likely be discussed in local family law classes.

There, an 11-year-old boy woke up the morning of July 18 to find that his father, who had been raising the boy alone because he had sole child custody, was gone. All that was left was a letter in which the father told the boy to go to a neighbor's home and said he was leaving because he could not find work and the pressures and demands of it all had become too much.

The father was arrested Monday in California. He will be extradited to Minnesota, where felony fraud and gross misdemeanor charges are pending. Authorities have not said what led the man to California other than that he seemed to be living in his van and was working at a deli when he was arrested.

The boy has been staying with his aunt since his father disappeared. The father told the boy that his mother was dead, but now it seems she may be alive and just not in contact with her family.

Situations like this present many ethical dilemmas. The father clearly was not getting the help he needed (he also wrote a confusing e-mail to an ex-girlfriend that suggested he might be suicidal), but he also put his son in danger by abandoning him. What do you think? Does this man deserve to be punished? Should be get treatment? Both?

Source: The Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Lakeville dad accused of abandoning his 11-year-old son arrested in California," Mary Lynn Smith, Aug. 30, 2011.