XV. The Law

This chapter does not discuss all of the many provisions of the various acts which regulate adoption. It leaves out the many and complicated provisions which govern how children are taken into care, freeing orders, and dispensing with parental consent to adoption. These are all aspects of adoption which do not directly concern adopters.

The following section relates specifically to the law of England and Wales. While the situation is broadly similar in other parts of the UK, there are differences. Be sure to consult a solicitor if you have any specific questions, especially if you are adopting in Scotland or Northern Ireland. See also Is It Legal? in the books section for a guide to Scottish adoption law .

The Legal Effects of Adoption

Parental Responsibility

All existing parental responsibility for the child is extinguished by an adoption order, no matter who or what organisation holds it. Any existing custody or access arrangements are also cancelled, although a contact order can be made at the time of the adoption order which carries on or modifies previously existing arrangements. Parental responsibility is vested solely in the new parents.

Old and New Family Relationships

Basically, British law provides that an adopted person is in all respects and for all purposes in law exactly the same as a born-to child of the adopters. This includes for the purpose of receiving state benefits. The legal relationship extends not only to the adoptive parents but to everyone else: the adoptee is the legal grandchild of the adopters’ parents, the legal niece or nephew of their brothers and sisters, etc. Just as he is no longer his birth parents’ legal child, he is also no longer his birth grandparents’ legal grandchild, etc. The children and other descendants of an adoptee stand in the same legal relationship to everyone in the adoptive family just as if the adoptee had been born into the family. On the other hand, all legal relationships between the adoptee and his former family (including such things as maintenance payments from a divorced birth parent) are terminated.

An adoptee may not marry his adoptive parent, but he may marry any other member of his adoptive family, unless that person is also a blood relative within the prohibited degrees of kinship. Adoption does not sever the ties between the adoptee and the birth family as far as the laws of incest and marriage are concerned: you can marry your adoptive sister but not your birth sister. An adoptee is entitled but not required to be told by the Registrar General if he is related to a person he intends to marry — this is not the same as tracing .

Adoptees and Inheritance

These relationships become legally significant primarily in matters of inheritance. An adoptee’s relationship to his adoptive parents is retained even if there is a divorce or the parents turn out later not to have been legally married at the time of the adoption (e.g., a bigamous marriage).

There are a few exceptions to and kinks in these rules.

An adopted child cannot inherit a title of nobility or entailed property (property which goes with a title of nobility) from his adoptive parents. (Dang! There goes my Rhys’ earldom and the castle in Cornwall!)
For purposes of inheritance an adopted child is deemed to have been born on the date of his adoption. So a child who is older than the eldest born-to child in his adoptive family does not become the eldest in terms of inheritance (although it rarely matters one way or the other).
A sibling group adopted on the same day are all considered to have been born on that date, in order of their actual births.
In spite of this, adopted children are still considered to be their actual physical age, regardless of when they were adopted.
I’m not sure what those last three points mean, but there are presumably situations when they’re important.

Your Will: Trust Funds for Disabled Children

Although in law an adoptee has the same rights of inheritance from the adoptive parents as any child born to them, it is a good idea to draw up a proper will and to explicitly name your adoptive child as heir to forestall any possible dispute. If you adopt a child whom you expect to need lifelong care, you probably need to set up a trust fund or other means of ensuring that the money will be available. In both cases you need the services of a trusted solicitor. Adoptees also inherit from other people through an adoptive relationship exactly as if that relationship were by birth, and descendants of an adopted person inherit as if the adoptee were a born-to child of the adopter (e.g., if an adoptee dies before her adoptive parent, leaving children, her children will inherit through the adoptee as if they were born-to grandchildren).

If you are permanently fostering a child, remember that he has no such rights of inheritance, and if you want him to inherit from your estate, you must make a proper will to that effect, or when you die he will get nothing at all. A child placed with you for adoption does not inherit from you automatically if you die before the adoption order is made, so you may want to change your will immediately on placement just in case. The same holds true for inheriting from your parents: if they have made a will leaving part of their estate to their “grandchildren” without naming them or specifying that this includes their “foster grandchildren”, they will not be included. However, because the new adoptive relationships extend throughout the adoptive family, any wills which specify that grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc. inherit will include people who have been formally adopted into that relationship, unless they are specifically excluded.

You will need to tell your solicitor exactly what your legal relationship is (legally adopted, placed for adoption, fostered) so that she can be sure all the bases are covered in your will, deed of trust, etc.

Other Legal Provisions

If a child is receiving a pension before he is adopted, the pension is still payable after adoption, even though the legal relationship between him and the person through whom he is entitled to the pension has been severed. If the birth parents have taken out an insurance policy on the life of the child for payment of his funeral expenses, the adoptive parents take their place as the beneficiaries of the policy.

If you adopt a child overseas it depends on which country you adopt in whether the adoption will be recognised under British law. See Appendix I for more information about the legal side of overseas adoptions and the effects of adoption on a child who is not already a UK citizen.