By now, most of us have read the story or seen the news report about the ER physician mother who lost temporary custody of her 4-year-old daughter as a result of her career choice. This legal ruling swept through South Florida, then the entire state and now the country. Dr. Theresa Greene had equal timesharing of her daughter until the child’s father filed an emergency motion, asking that her timesharing be completely suspended (on a temporary basis) until the COVID-19 crisis subsided. The grounds raised were that the mother’s exposure to the coronavirus posed a risk to both the child as well as the father by virtue of the timesharing exchanges. The presiding judge granted the emotion to suspend the mother’s timesharing, while requiring video contact as a substitute and providing for make-up time later. Of note, the mother was wearing protective gear at work and had tested negative for COVID-19. The court further ruled that the mother was to be jailed if she did not turn the child over. The ruling is now before the Third District Court of Appeals, which has already granted mother’s emergency motion to stay the decision.

There has been resounding commentary both sides of the table on this issue