adoption(redirected from adoptive parent)
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adoption,act by which the legal relation of parent and childparent and child,
legal relationship, created by biological (birth) relationship or by adoption, that confers certain rights and duties on parent and child; in some states the courts have given the nonbiological, nonadoptive partner of a parent standing as a parent in a legal
..... Click the link for more information. is created. Adoption was recognized by Roman law but not by common lawcommon law,
system of law that prevails in England and in countries colonized by England. The name is derived from the medieval theory that the law administered by the king's courts represented the common custom of the realm, as opposed to the custom of local jurisdiction that
..... Click the link for more information. . Statutes first introduced adoption into U.S. law in the mid-19th cent., and today it is allowed in all states of the United States and in Great Britain. Adoption is generally a judicial proceeding, requiring a hearing before a judge. Adoption statutes usually provide that the consent of the parents or guardian of the child—and that of the child, if above a certain age—must be obtained. An adopted child generally assumes the rights and duties of a natural legitimate child. Similarly, the rights and duties accompanying natural parenthood generally accompany adoptive parenthood (e.g., the right of custody and the obligation of support). The natural parents have no right to control an adopted child, nor have they any duties toward it, but in some states the child does not lose the right to inherit from them.
In many cases children are adopted by relatives. Many states now permit adoption by unmarried adults; some allow adoption by homosexual couples. Most adoptions are of the same race. Transracial adoptions are controversial, pitting issues of culture and heritage against the need of a child for a stable parent-child relationship as early in life as possible, regardless of race. The Multiethnic Placement Act (1994) made it illegal for U.S. states to hold up adoptions solely in order to match racial or ethnic background of the child.
In adoption by unrelated adults, the courts have traditionally attempted to ease adjustment to the adoptive family and protect the privacy of the (often unwed) mother by maintaining secrecy regarding the child's birth parents. Since the 1970s, however, a growing number of adopted children have attempted to identify their birth parents, and "open adoption," in which adoptive and birth parents maintain a relationship, has become more accepted. Questions of parental rights and where these stand vis-à-vis the rights and best interests of the child have also been highlighted in cases in which the courts tranferred custody of adopted or fostered children to birth parents who had previously given them up.
Many children are adopted through public or private agencies, but a growing number are adopted through private placement, in which the prospective adoptive parents advertise for or are otherwise put into contact with a birth mother, usually with the help of a lawyer who is familiar with the process and the legal requirements of the individual states. As birth control and abortion have become more available and as the stigma formerly attached to unwed motherhood has lifted, fewer infants have been put up for adoption, making it increasingly difficult for prospective parents to find young children to adopt (see also infertilityinfertility,
inability to conceive or carry a child to delivery. The term is usually limited to situations where the couple has had intercourse regularly for one year without using birth control.
..... Click the link for more information. ). In many cases, parents have adopted babies from outside the United States, particularly South Korea, and Mexico and other Latin American countries, but the increased demand has also been accompanied by black-market adoption arrangements. In 1980 the U.S. Congress passed the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act to give support to foster families who adopt and to families who adopt children with disabilities.
See also foster carefoster care,
generally, care of children on a full-time, temporary basis by persons other than their own parents. Also known as boarding-home care, foster care is intended to offer a supportive family environment to children whose natural parents cannot raise them because of the
..... Click the link for more information. , guardian and wardguardian and ward,
in law. A guardian is someone who by appointment or by relationship has the care of a person or that person's property, or both. The protected individual, known as the ward, is considered legally incapable of acting for himself or herself; examples are a child
..... Click the link for more information. .
See M. Kornitzer, Adoption (2d ed. 1967); M. L. Leavy, Law of Adoption (3d ed. 1968); M. K. Benet, The Politics of Adoption (1976); P. Bean, ed., Adoption: Essays in Social Policy, Law, and Sociology (1984); E. W. Carp, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption (1999).
the juridical act of taking and agreeing to raise another’s child and of establishing with the child the juridical (personal and property) relations that exist between natural parents and children. Adoption is a humane, legal institution that makes it possible for orphans, as well as children deprived of parental supervision and support, to be brought up in a family.
In the USSR, adoption is regulated by the 1968 Basic Principles of Marriage and Family Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics and by the republic codes on marriage and the family. An adult is permitted to adopt only a person not yet of age and only if it is in the minor’s interest. The act of adoption is formalized by a decision of the executive committee of the district or city soviet of people’s deputies; the decision must then be recorded in a registry office for documents of civil status (ZAGS). In order to adopt a child who has reached the age of ten, the child’s consent must be obtained. If the parents of a child are alive, their consent is required for adoption, except in those cases when they have been deprived of parental rights, when they have been recognized in the manner established by law as incompetent or missing, or when they have neglected their duty to provide the child with a proper upbringing.
Any adult citizen may become an adoptive parent, with the exception of persons deprived of parental rights and persons recognized by established procedure as incompetent or of limited competence. If a child is adopted by one member of a married couple, the consent of the other spouse must be obtained. When the decision on adoption is rendered, at the request of the adoptive parent the child may be given the last name of the new parent and the appropriate patronymic.
The secrecy of adoption is protected by law (including art. 1241 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). Adopted children (and their descendants) and adoptive parents (and their relatives) have the same personal and property rights and duties with respect to one another as the corresponding relatives by birth. Adoption carried out in violation of the conditions established by law may be recognized as invalid, for instance, adoption procured by false documents, and the act of adoption may be declared void in the interests of the child. Upon nullification of adoption, the adoptive parent may still be obligated to support the child.