Site Search

Site Map

Jargon
Dictionary

Feedback

Site Policy

Legal Links

Foreign Law

Help!

What Is Adoption

Adoption is a process which has only legally been known in England and Wales since 1926. It extinguishes the rights of a childs natural paerents over that child, and gives parental rights and responsibility to the new adoptive parents. On adoption, a child will become a legitimate child of the adoptive parents, and will be treated exactly the same as the adoptive parents natural children. They will be ellegible to inherit property and titles.

Children who are adopted cannot apply for a copy of their birth certificate, or get any other informationa bout their parents until they are 18 years old.

Who Can Apply For Adoption?

Children can be adopted, provided that they are under the age of 18, and are unmarried. In most cases, the people applying to adopt will be a couple, in which case, both must be over the age of 21, and resident in the United Kingdom. It is possible for single people to adopt, and they must comply with the same regulations as couples. The adoption agencies prefer their children to be adopted into a stable family environment, and so married couples are more likely to be assigned children than single people.

Certain people are not ellegible to adopt, and these include unemployed people, and, of course, people who have a criminal record, or have been convicted of abuse, sexual offences or domestic violence offences.

Can Adoption Be Forced?

The courts must decide whether or not the people applying to adopt are suitable, and whether or not it is in the childs best interests to allow it to be adopted. The childs feelings and opinions on the adoption will also be asked, and this will be take into account, and given weight by the childs age and level of understanding. If the child has strong objections to the adoption, the court will not grant the order.

The consent of the natural parents is usually required for an adoption order to be made, however, because the court must take into account the long term safety and happiness of the child, they have the power to dispense with this consent, if it believes that the natural parents are witholding it unreasonably.