Religious freedom and the best interests of the child: the case of Jehovah’s witnesses in child custody litigation

INTRODUCTION Few areas of litigation are more difficult for dispassionate and disinterested judicial determination and more likely to evoke strong and passionate reactions by the protagonists, to cause the general public to take sides, and to incite acrimonious debate among religious groups than the area of litigation involving religious considerations in the upbringing of children. Judicial decisions refusing to allow a couple of one faith to adopt a child born to a mother of a different fai..