Forced adoption an option for bad mothers

THE prospect of drug addicted Queensland couples being forced to relinquish rights over their newborn babies is being discussed inside a powerful inquiry.

THE prospect of drug addicted Queensland couples being forced to relinquish rights over their newborn babies is being discussed inside a powerful inquiry struggling to find solutions to the state's most pressing social problem.

The Child Protection Inquiry last week seriously discussed "parendectomy" - denying parents rights over their own child.

Corelle Davies, Brisbane-based Child Safety director, Queensland Health, said the idea of "stably placing and potentially adopting out younger children" appeared to be the most compassionate way of treating babies of teenage youths with no hope of being responsible parents.

"It sounds terrible, but for the long-term viability of that child into the future it's possibly a hard decision but a good decision," she said.

"Whether we're bold enough to make it, and I'm sure there will be a lot of parental rights people who will say that that's not the way to go, but I'm not seeing, especially with these very young children, that we're doing the right thing by them."

Hetty Johnston, founder of Bravehearts who has campaigned against child sexual abuse, said the idea had merit.

Ms Johnston, who herself gave up a child for adoption when she was 15 but later reconciled, said no one should underestimate the emotional and practical complexities of adoption.

But when kids were born into environments dominated by drugs and alcohol and the potential for physical and sexual abuse was real, removal was the best option, she said.

"You go in and you get them out of there," she said. "It's a complex situation but the interests of the child come first."

The inquiry heard that the removal need not be along the old-style adoption lines with parents allowed some involvement with their child's life.

Ms Davies said a handful of Americans states had taken up the idea.

"In America, as I say, only a couple of states have decided that in the long-term interests and the best interests of that child this is the way to go."

The $6 million inquiry headed by Commissioner Tim Carmody has been confronted with deeply disturbing evidence in the past two weeks.

There are now more than 8000 children in state care, some already forcibly removed from drug affected or mentally unstable mothers at birth.

The inquiry has also heard there are a large number of young teenagers in Queensland who accept pregnancy as part of the normal process.

The inquiry continues.