How To Have A Successful Adoption Without Parental Consent
Is it possible to have an adoption without parental consent?
The answer is yes. But, some conditions make an adoption without parental consent possible which you must know.
And if you read this article a little further, I will show you how to do that and successfully take your child home without his/her parent’s consent.
By adopting a child into your home, you have decided to build a relationship with a baby that is not your biological child, and automatically a new parent-child relationship is formed.
However, this won’t be possible if the child’s biological parents didn’t sever their rights as the parents.
That makes it easy for all the responsibilities and rights accompanying the parent-child relationship to be transferred to the child’s newest parents (adoptive parents).
The truth is that all the relationships between the child and the parents must be legally severed to make the adoption safe for both families involved in the adoption.
But, the truth also is that there are cases where parental consent is not needed to finalize the adoption.
What Does Parental Consent Mean?
Parental consent is simply the legal power any parent has to be informed or give consent before their child will undergo certain things like surgery, medical treatments, or adoption.
Many nations or states have consent laws that promulgate that consent must be obtained from at least one of the child’s parents before the minor can do or indulge in certain activities.
Giving Consent For Adoption:-
Both parents of a child have the right to give consent before their child will be adopted.
The child’s father and mother have the same legal right to give consent before their child is placed for adoption and in most cases, the two must be involved in the adoption.
However, if the court decides that adoption is in the child’s best interest, parental consent may be nullified.
Note also that when a child is of age (from 12 and above) and can understand and can understand what adoption and consenting to adoption means, they can consent to their adoption.
When Adoption Without Parental Consent Can Be Possible:-
Any unmarried pregnant woman who has made up her mind to place her child for adoption will do that and nothing can change that.
If she doesn’t know the child’s father, there is no need to search for him to get consent to place her child for adoption.
Also, if the child’s parent for one reason or another, is incarcerated or serving for a long time, there won’t be a need for parental consent.
A legal, biological, alleged parental consent may also not be needed if the court sees that the adoption is in the best interest of the child.
A legal guardian, department, or agency’s consent will not be needed when the adoption is in the kid’s interest.
When the child’s parents can not be located. The child will be adopted without parental consent.
Some states require that parents must be of a certain fitness level, and if they didn’t fulfill those requirements they are declared unfit parents.
Although this may vary by state, the common reasons include neglect, drug, abandonment, abuse, alcohol addiction, or incarceration.
The unfit parents can have their parental rights terminated by the court, resulting in a waiver of parental consent in many states, this is because the parental rights termination has severed the parent-child relationship.
Another condition that can engender an adoption without parental consent is during a step-parent adoption.
Although consent is needed in this type of adoption also if the birth parent’s rights have been terminated due to abandonment, neglect, unfitness, or abuse, consent won’t be needed to finalize the adoption.
How To successfully Adoption Without Parental Consent:-
very adoption process begins with submitting an adoption petition to the court, and if you want to go through adoption without parental consent, you have to submit a Petition using your lawyer.
In your petition, you should prove to the court why the adoption is necessary, and how the adoption will protect the child’s best interests.
If the child’s refused to give their consent for the adoption, the court will terminate it before the adoption commence
Also, as the adoptive parents, any time you wish to change the child’s name, your adoption attorney is there to help you do that.
They will have to submit a request for a name change to the court along with your adoption petition.
How Would A Lawyer Help You Adopt A Child Without The Parent’s Consent?
The adoption attorney is also known as the family lawyer, and they are known to help the adoptive parent deal with matters like –
- Alimony disputes.
- Divorce.
- Prenuptial agreements.
- Child custody.
- And domestic violence.
When you are going through adoption without parental consent, the adoption lawyer will be there to give you all the guidance you need to have a successful adoption process.
The attorney will also help you go through all the legal parts of your adoption process, including
- Helping you complete your adoption home study.
- Work with biological parents, and state agencies, guide you legally, and adoption agencies.
- Submit your adoption petition.
- Help you do the paperwork.
- And help you meet every requirement during the family assessment.
A good adoption attorney will be there to help you overcome all the legal obstacles you encounter during your adoption journey.
The best of it all is that they will offer quality advocacy and effective representation to you, before and during the adoption hearing.
Things Required From Adoptive Parents For Successful Adoption Without Parental Consent:-
To effectively have an adoption without parental consent, you must be 18 years and above, and legally eligible to adopt.
There will be an extensive assessment of your home and family to make sure that you are adequately ready to take good care of the child you want to adopt.
The home study or Family Assessment:-
You will likely see the home study as a crazy step in the adoption process, but the child’s interest is always the priority of both the judge and every state government.
That is the reason why a home study must be completed before you proceed to adopt your child, whether with consent or not.
There will also be a criminal background check in your family. Every member of your family that is up to 16 years of age must be checked for records of abuse or neglect.
In Conclusion:-
I hope I have answered your question ” can I adopt a child without parental consent.”
As I said, you can have adoption without parental consent, but you must know how to go about it. You must know when it is possible to adopt without parental consent or with consent.
In this post, I showed you everything you need to know about adoption without parental permission and why it is easy.
Read this post carefully so you will understand what steps to take to have a successful adoption without parental consent.
See you at the top.
I am still your in-house counselor, Murhyaik.
