Valerie Murphy

The bill allows family court to proceed with parental fitness tests without a conviction, bypassing due process by not requiring a legal finding of guilt. The bill creates immeasurable metrics of abuse to extend to "emotional" and "psychological" and while I understand these are real traumas, I do not believe that the burden of proof to have my child taken from me should include anything that cannot be measured. Additionally the new term of "parentification" is included as abuse. Not only can this not be measured, it is a new "therapy" term, that could easily be misconstrued and is certainly not grounds for abuse. Finally, I am very upset that the bill lowers the standard of evidence by using the "preponderance of the evidence" standard instead of "beyond a reasonable doubt." The bill treats abuse and neglect more like civil than criminal matters, potentially leading to unjust loss of parental rights without sufficient proof of wrongdoing.