Jad Abumrad (host) / main Radiolab host voice

I can't imagine a world where that's okay.

They say, we get that there's a huge historical wrong here, but what does that have to do with us?

It reminds me of arguments that happen over affirmative action, weirdly.

Definitely, but here the details are so different.

They say, this is a law that was created to protect Indian families, right?

But here you've got a Hispanic birth mom, you've got a white couple, and then you've got a dad who's out of the picture, so you're not actually protecting an Indian family, you're forcibly creating a new one.

And in the process, you're breaking up a loving home.

My personal opinion is that ICWA has outlived its usefulness and causes more problems than it solves.

This is Mark Fidler.

I'm one of the attorneys for Matt and Melanie Capobianco.

He also happens to be Native American himself.

I'm an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

That's a reservation up in North Dakota, right on the border with Canada.

You know, so I kind of had a foot in two cultures, so to speak.

I'd go back to the res in the summer and

Mark actually used to argue the other side, that the most important thing was to keep Indian families together, and that Indian kids who were placed in non-Indian homes would experience emotional, psychological harm by being raised outside of the culture.

But then... I had a case in, I think it was 94.

Which gave him pause.

Ah, boy.

That's a good word.