Adoption

Adoption is the process, after a parent’s rights have been terminated, where a third party becomes the legal parent of a child. Most adoptions are brought by step-parents for the adoption of their step-child, or grandparents who wish to adopt their grandchildren. Adoptions, however, can be had by third parties who have custodial rights, so such can include aunts or uncles, cousins, foster parents, or other custodians.

Most often, unless brought by a state agency, an adoption is brought in conjunction with a termination of parental rights proceedings such that once a parent’s rights are terminated the court may proceed with the adoption process. Adoption proceedings, once final, means that the adopting parent is the legal parent as if the child had been born to that parent. The biological parent is relegated to the status of a stranger. The child will inherit from the adoptive parent and the adoptive parent will inherit from the child. The adoptive parent can obtain custody in the event of a later filed divorce or be obligated to pay child support. By all accounts under the law, the child is that of the adoptive parent and the child’s birth certificate is changed to reflect that the child was born unto that parent. The biological parent’s name is removed from the birth certificate and replaced with that of the adoptive parent’s name.