Montgomery County Department of Social Services v. Sanders

The United Nations Declaration states that "[m]ankind owes to a child the best it has to give." Very few persons will quarrel with the tenor of that assertion. What gives rise to controversy is not the general proposition of mankinds obligation to provide what is best for the child, but rather, what is best. The theoretical best mankind can provide is not always the best that society, through its courts, can implement. Consistently, the courts of Maryland have endeavored, in custody cases, to look to the "best interest" of the child. See e.g., Ross v. Hoffman, 280 Md. 172, 175, 372 A.2d 582, 585 (1977); DeGrange v. Kline, 254 Md. 240, 243, 254 A.2d 353, 354 (1969); Kline v. Bennett, 245 Md. 674, 678, 225 A.2d 863, 865 (1967); Butler v. Perry, 210 Md. 332, 342, 123 A.2d 453, 458 (1956); Trudeau v. Trudeau, 204 Md. 214, 218, 103 A.2d 563, 564 (1954); In re Harris, 200 Md. 300, 310, 89 A.2d 615, 619 (1952); Ross v. Pick, 199 Md. 341, 351, 86 A.2d 463, 468 (1962); Miller v. Miller, 191 Md. 396, 407, 62 A.2d 293, 298 (1948); Dietrich v. Anderson, 185 Md. 103, 116-17, 43 A.2d 186, 191-92 (1945); Kartman v. Kartman, 163 Md. 19, 22, 161 A. 269, 270 (1932); Barnard v. Godfrey, 157 Md. 264, 267, 145 A. 614, 616 (1929). Courts, however, are limited to the framework of that which is available in each particular case.