In April of 2001, I visited Emmanuel A. at the Incarnation Children's Center ("ICC"). Emmanuel was one of my first clients.1 He had come into foster care at birth. His mother was young, a recent immigrant, addicted to heroin, and living in poverty. Her first two sons were born in Nigeria, full-term healthy babies. Emmanuel was born eight weeks premature, addicted to heroin and HIV positive. His two older brothers lived with the children's maternal aunt; Emmanuel's home was the Incarnation

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... en's Center, a nursing home for children with AIDS. In 2002, Emmanuel was adopted by his aunt, and I shipped his file to offsite storage. Emmanuel's was not a remarkable case. A decade later I am pursuing a master's in bioethics. For the past three years I have been a member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at a large teaching hospital, and I have entered my second decade as an attorney representing children in foster care. My head is clouded with images of foster children and clinical trials, vulnerable subjects, and ethical valuations. And suddenly I remember Emmanuel and ICC. I remember arriving at the brick building on Audubon Avenue and being ushered upstairs to a large recreation room. The floor was littered with brightly colored toys, the walls camouflaged in children's art. I had never met a child with AIDS. The childcare worker who had escorted me to the floor identified Emmanuel for me. He was a smaller-than-average four-year-old who was throwing himself over furniture like a miniature pro-wrestler. I remember thinking, "He can't be Emmanuel." I had studied his records before coming. My Emmanuel had a gastronomy tube and was sick with AIDS. He did and he was. But his feeding tube, I learned, would connect to a port that was invisible under his striped polo shirt, and having AIDS, I learned, doesn't mean you can't play. Emmanuel and I talked a little and played a little. I remember that. I also remember fighting for his discharge from ICC. The Commissioner of Social Services, to whom Emmanuel's care and cus [...]