High Court to Rule on Man’s Right to Veto Son’s Adoption

Revisiting an emotional issue of family law, the state Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether a San Diego man could veto an adoption the day after his child was born.

Six of the seven justices, all but Ronald George, voted to review a lower court ruling that allowed the father, Mark King, to exercise parental rights on the grounds that he had shown a full commitment to assume parental responsibilities after the birth.

A hearing had been sought by the adoptive parents, John and Margaret Stenbeck of San Diego, and a lawyer appointed to represent the 3-year-old boy.

The case involves an issue that the state’s high court addressed in 1992, when it said a biological father who makes a prompt and thorough commitment to assuming parental responsibilities has the same right as the mother to veto an adoption.

King, of Prescott, Ariz., was 20 when he impregnated his 15-year-old girlfriend, Stephanie Harman, in 1990. King was surprised by the pregnancy because he had undergone a vasectomy, and he had twice beaten Harman, used drugs and attempted suicide halfway through the pregnancy, said the 4th District Court of Appeal.

The couple agreed to the adoption by the Stenbecks, but King changed his mind while recovering from his suicide attempt, the court said. However, he did not tell the Stenbecks until a day after the child, Michael, was born in February, 1991. Over the objections of Harman, from whom he had separated, he sued for custody.