A full schedule of dinners, errands and duties can quietly push physical closeness out of a marriage until no one can remember when it last happened. Public success can hide this private loss. When the partner finally objects, the hurt may be less about lost love than fear of lost respectability.
Kindness may be the essential human ingredient a court sees in case after case, yet it is voluntary and no ruling can require it. A judge can order what is done to a person, but not the care that would make the order bearable. Sometimes circumstances block kindness entirely by forcing a choice between two evils.
Once a family dispute enters the courts, parents learn the law's vocabulary and procedures and find themselves fighting viciously with someone they once loved. The children become counters in the game, and every small grievance becomes a grab for money.
The rule that a child's welfare is the paramount consideration lets a court override parents' sincere faith, even when that faith would refuse life-saving treatment. Its supporters count this as a mark of civilisation's progress. It sounds simple, but applying it means weighing a near-adult's own convictions against his survival.
Overriding a person's choice to save their life does not end your part in it. The person who was saved may fasten onto the rescuer and look to them for meaning and a new life, even after being told the case is closed. Turning them away can undo the rescue.