From The Los Angeles Times:
Patrick Holland was only 8 when he found his mother dead on her bedroom floor. Elizabeth Holland had been shot eight times and beaten so savagely with the gun that its wooden handle shattered.
The killer was Patrick's father, Daniel Holland.
Now 14 years old, Patrick Holland is trying to cut off all ties -- legal as well as emotional -- with the man who murdered his mother.
"He is not my father anymore," Patrick said.
Today, a Massachusetts judge is to hear Patrick's petition to terminate his father's parental rights. State social service officials have joined with Patrick to ask the court to end Daniel Holland's role as a father.
Legal experts do not know of another case like this one.
I'm all for this. Being a parent is a privilege, not a right. In a situation like this one where the father has obviously done irreparable harm to his relationship with the child he should lose his parental rights.