Shocking: Newborn Seized Over Parenting Competence Test

On August 11, Ivana Nikoline Brønlund, an 18-year-old Greenlandic mother, gave commencement to her daughter, Aviaja-Luuna, astatine a infirmary adjacent Copenhagen, Denmark. Just 1 hr aft nan birth, Danish authorities removed nan newborn from her care, citing nan results of a “parenting competence” trial (FKU) that Brønlund had been administered during her pregnancy.

The FKU tests are psychometric assessments utilized by Danish kid protection services to measure whether a genitor has nan skills, knowledge, and affectional capacity to attraction for a kid safely. These tests typically see nan Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV), which measures cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills; nan Rorschach Inkblot Test, assessing characteristic traits and affectional functioning; and nan Reading nan Mind successful nan Eyes Test (RME), which evaluates societal cognition and nan expertise to construe others’ emotions. Authorities usage nan results of these tests, alongside location visits, societal worker reports, and different evidence, to find whether a kid whitethorn beryllium astatine consequence of neglect aliases harm.

Earlier successful 2025, authorities banned FKU testing for Greenlandic parents owed to concerns complete taste bias. Despite this, Brønlund was subjected to nan assessment, starring to her child’s contiguous removal. Critics reason that these assessments neglect to relationship for taste differences and tin misclassify tin Indigenous parents arsenic “incompetent.” Protesters crossed Greenland, Denmark, and Iceland person condemned nan actions arsenic a continuation of assemblage attitudes and a disregard for Indigenous family rights. However, experts statement that nan concerns astir these tests spell acold beyond taste context. Parenting competence assessments person superior limitations for each mothers, not conscionable Indigenous parents. They are designed to measurement cognitive and affectional skills successful controlled environments, but real-life parenting requires intuition, adaptability, and continuous affectional engagement, qualities that cannot beryllium accurately captured successful a psychometric test. High stress, fatigue, aliases worry during testing tin negatively impact scores, starring to mendacious impressions of incompetence. Moreover, these tests usually neglect to see nan parent’s societal support network, family dynamics, aliases resilience nether real-life conditions.

The ineligible usage of these tests is highly controversial. In Denmark, authorities tin usage FKU results arsenic portion of nan grounds to warrant nan removal of a kid if location is perceived risk. Critics reason that relying connected a trial people to find whether a genitor tin attraction for their kid is ethically and psychologically fraught. The very procedures meant to protect children whitethorn alternatively inflict trauma connected some mother and child, causing precocious levels of anxiety, depression, and stress, peculiarly erstwhile newborns are removed instantly aft birth.

Following nan nationalist outcry, Danish authorities acknowledged procedural errors successful Brønlund’s lawsuit and confirmed it would beryllium reviewed pinch nan VISO advisory unit, which specialises successful Greenlandic taste affairs. Brønlund has revenge an entreaty against nan decision, pinch her proceeding scheduled for September 16. The Brønlund lawsuit has reignited statement complete Denmark’s curen of Greenlandic families, nan bequest of assemblage policies successful kid welfare, and nan broader ethical mobility of whether psychometric tests tin aliases should dictate nan removal of children from their parents. Advocates proceed to push for reforms to guarantee that assessments are culturally sensitive, that each parents are treated fairly, and that kid protection services equilibrium information pinch respect for parental rights, real-life parenting ability, and psychological wellbeing.

In this time and property its shocking that these ‘‘assessments’’ moreover beryllium and are a legally utilized to warrant nan removal of a kid from its mother erstwhile nan reality is that nary trial tin seizure real-world caregiving, bonding, aliases a parent’s expertise to respond to a child’s unsocial needs.