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The world agrees: thank goodness Abby Sunderland is safe and sound.

Following the rescue of this 16-year old sailor, though, a new debate has emerged: were her parents irresponsible for allowing her to sail around the globe in the first place?

If you’re of the opinion that Abby’s parents should never have let their teenage child embark on such a dangerous mission, the following piece of news won’t exactly change your mind about Mr. and Mrs. Sunderland:

The New York Post reports they are broke and Laurence Sunderland had signed a deal to film a reality show (Adventures in Sunderland) weeks after Abby set off on her doomed sail.

“The show might be about family, it might be about Abigail’s trip. It’s something that was shopped around,” he told the newspaper. “We thought it might be a good idea if it was encouraging to kids to get out there and do things.”

Mr. Sunderland insists, however, that his daughter’s dangerous trip was not a PR stunt for the series, which he says was “the last thing on my mind” when Abby lost contact with her family for 20 hours last week.

“That’s absolutely ridiculous. My passion is first and foremost for my children and their endeavors. And it’s absolutely, totally ridiculous and totally unfounded,” Sunderland told Larry King of last night of allegations he staged Abby’s trip for publicity.

Abby agrees. She blogged yesterday that her solo navigation was “the best thing I have ever done or been through and I don’t ever want to forget all the great times… or the bad ones for that matter.”