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I'm not sure how you get that the biological father is a ne'er-do-well sperm donor. He married the mother and they actively tried to locate their child. He may have begotten a child out of marriage, and he may not have been as high up the cultural/economic totem pole as the Smileys, but by that standard half the working-class men of America are ne'er do wells who can be stripped of their rights with impunity. When an infant is being adopted the law, in recognition of the strong emotions and deep issues involved, allows the birthparents a certain period of time in which they can change their mind. Assuming that the article is correct on this point, an impartial judge determined at the time that they had satisfied the requirements of this provision and were entitled to have their baby back. In defying this judgment the Smileys were doing no different than somebody who snatches a kid from a playground when the mom isn't looking. The fact that he has no memory of anybody else doesn't make these selfish criminals his parents. I feel very bad for the guy because in a certain sense he has no parents at all. Obviously it will take him a long time, probably forever, to come to terms with this, and what he says to the media probably doesn't reflect his deepest thoughts on the subject. But the sentencing of the kidnappers should take his feelings into account. I don't see how he is served by throwing them into jail. But the birthparents should get everything they own as restitution for their pain and suffering. This would also be poetic justice relative to their self-serving claim that they were motivated by their superior ability to meet the child's material needs.

...Smileys were doing no different than somebody who snatches a kid from a playground when the mom isn't looking.

Well, not exactly. They apparently had an agreement in principle to adopt the kid, and the kid was "snatched" from them by our stupid, touchy-feely liberal judiciary.

HOWEVER...

That doesn't alter the fact that they DID break the law. So read what I said again: They should be punished because the law is the law.