Custody Case Goes Viral
Posted 6/10/2011
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This is an update on a story that I first wrote about a number of weeks ago. You may remember the custody dispute between a woman in NC with Stage IV breast cancer and her husband in Chicago. Here is an update (or, rather, the beginning, and then a link to read more):
Woman's cancer a factor in complex custody case
Some are outraged over North Carolina judge's decision to send children to father in Arlington Heights
By Julie Deardorff, Tribune reporter 2:23 PM PDT, June 4, 2011
Parents diagnosed with cancer commonly fear dying before their children have grown. But an unusual child custody battle in North Carolina has raised another troubling concern: Can the illness be used against the sick parent?
The ongoing case, which has stirred up an emotional debate over cancer discrimination, involves Alaina Giordano, 37, a mother with breast cancer who recently lost primary custody of her 11-year-old daughter and 6- year-old son to her estranged husband.
Though the children now live with Giordano in Durham, the judge's ruling means they must move to the Chicago area on June 17 to live with their father in Arlington Heights. Among the factors cited in the lengthy decision, which Giordano has appealed, were concerns over her health and the uncertainty over how long she will live. Her stage 4 breast cancer has spread throughout her body, but people can live for years with the advanced disease.
latimes.com/health/ct-met-cancer-custody-20110604,0,1469361.story
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