Three-and-a-half-year-old Evan Parker Scott was handed over to his biological mother earlier this afternoon. It’s a heart-breaking story:

Evan, bundled in a blue jacket and sucking on a pacifier, was carried outside by Dawn Scott, who along with her husband, Gene, cared for the child for most of his life. The couple had appealed a judge’s ruling transferring custody to the biological mother, Amanda Hopkins.

News crews gathered around the Scotts’ home Saturday morning in anticipation of the meeting, and the child’s biological father and grandfather pushed a television cameraman out of the way during the transfer.

Evan, who could be heard wailing inside the home, appeared calm after he was placed in a car seat in a van driven by Hopkins’ husband, Michael. Amanda Hopkins scolded photographers taking pictures of the child: “Leave him alone. He’s just a little boy.”

After Evan was whisked away, Dawn Scott dropped to the ground. Gene Scott called it a “very emotional, traumatic situation” and said the family would continue their legal fight.

“If they truly loved him, they wouldn’t have done this,” he said, tears welled in his eyes…

If you can stand it–I just can’t bear to watch–the advocacy group Hear My Voice has links to video of Evan’s handover. Wendy McElroy and Jeff Jacoby have very different takes on the case. Read both. McElroy makes some important points about how courts shortchange fathers’ rights. She argues that the whole tragedy might have been avoided if the judicial system had addressed the claims of Evan’s biological father at the very outset instead of waiting until the boy was attached and settled in the loving home of his adoptive parents.

But Jacoby raises some troubling questions about Evan’s biological dad that McElroy does not mention:

At 3 1/2, of course, Evan is too young to be aware of the circumstances swirling around him. He has no idea that his biological mother was an unmarried 21-year-old who had moved to Jacksonville to get away from Stephen White Jr., the unstable 33-year-old who had impregnated her. He doesn’t know that White “has a history of drug use and violent behavior,” as Judge Wallace wrote in his Dec. 16 order or that he was convicted of criminal assault for beating Amanda early in her pregnancy — a beating severe enough to send her to the hospital.

Evan has no idea that Hopkins willingly placed him with the Scotts for adoption because she knew they could give him a better life than she could. He doesn’t understand that White was notified of the pending adoption before he was born, but waited months before taking the legal steps necessary to establish his paternity. He has no sense of the tortuous legal odyssey that ensued when a judge nonetheless allowed White to block the Scotts’ adoption and demand custody for himself — an odyssey that has involved nine judges, endless trips to court, and a blizzard of motions, cross-motions, affidavits, and orders.

All this little boy really knows is that Dawn and Gene Scott are his Mama and his Daddy and always have been. They are his rock — the one true thing he has always known…

The Scotts have vowed to continue their legal battle to regain custody of Evan. Contributions to his legal defense fund can be made through Hear My Voice. For now, we can only hope and pray Evan doesn’t end up like Bradley McGee.

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