Moral Versus Legal

A Primer on Grandparents' Rights

By Kelly Burgess

Wallace says the absoluteness of parental rights is almost a given in our society, which makes it more difficult for a grandparent who has been shut out.

"There's an 1899 Louisiana case which states that grandparents have a moral right to see their grandchildren but no legal right," Wallace says. "That's the way the law has stayed, but more and more over the past years we've come to recognize that children have rights, too, including a right to maintain relationships with those who they have had close relationships in their past."

The problems arise when these "moral rights" come in conflict with the parents' wishes.

According to Richard A. Harris, president of The Harris Law Firm, P.C., which sponsors the Colorado Divorce Information Web site, part of the problem is that our culture doesn't value the elderly, nor do we put enough emphasis on the rights of the child, as opposed to the desires of the adults.

"Along with the increasing rate of divorce, we have a situation where previous intact families are now broken apart, and the fallout from that has spread to the extended family particularly the grandparents," Harris says. "During a divorce it's easy to project that anger and hate for who you're divorcing onto the spouse's parents, but at the end of the day that's a selfish mentality that works to the detriment of the children."