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According to reports, a man living in Missouri who claims that his obesity has prevented him from being allowed to adopt a baby was recently given custody of the child.
The struggle for adoption not only involved the man being overweight but also had to do with another couple who wanted to adopt the baby boy.
Denied Adoption Rights Due to Weight?
Gary Stocklaufer and his wife, Cindy, were allegedly initially awarded custody of an eight-month-old boy by Judge John R. O’Malley.
However, since the custody rights were given, the boy has been under the care of another couple who had also been fighting to adopt him.
The case gained national attention after the Stocklaufer’s claimed that they had suddenly been denied a petition to adopt the child due to Gary’s weight.
Before having gastric bypass surgery and during the adoption trial, Gary weighed 550 pounds, which he believes accounted for the problems they encountered while trying to adopt the baby.
Couple Regains Custody
Late last month, the Stocklaufer’s were given full custody of the child, who was named Max, by Judge O’Malley.
Judge O’Malley claims that the decision to remove Max from the Stocklaufer’s home had nothing to do with Gary’s weight and was simply because the couple hadn’t followed proper adoption procedures.
In the judge’s final ruling earlier this week, he claimed that it was in the boy’s “best interest” that the couple be permitted to adopt him.
(Source: FindLaw)
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