We consider ourselves to be a moral nation. We try to protect our children from ideas and images and actions that we feel would be harmful to them. We have laws and institutions (like DFACS) to protect them from their own family members, if necessary.
If a mother is a drug addict with nefarious characters coming and going, or a prostitute that brings johns home, or a criminal or abusive father, or perhaps a lone parent bouncing in and out of mental institutions - the children are often taken from the parents and placed in foster homes, sometimes by force. Are the foster homes better? Sometimes they are - but often a child has a special connection with a birth parent that cannot be broken by destructive behavior.
It is a controversial practice, taking a child from its parents. Who are we to decide what is best for the child? Who are we to decide what is a good home and what is a bad home? What if the parents are nudists, and walk around naked in front of their children? Some might say that is unhealthy for the child. What if the parents are Satan worshipers? Christians might say the child is in mortal (and spiritual) danger. Who decides what is moral? Whose measuring stick do we use?
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