Adoption establishes a legal parent-child relationship and, in all but second-parent adoptions and stepparent adoptions, terminates the parent-child relationship between the child and birth parents. Said differently, after the court grants an adoption, the parental rights of the biological parents come to an end and the adoptive parents become the child’s legal parents. Guardianship, on […]
Neither Indiana nor any other state allows an expectant mother, considering giving her baby up for adoption, to irrevocably consent to adoption before she gives birth. Even if a state allows for pre-birth consenting, the state will give the birth mother a few days after birth to change her mind and withdraw her consent to […]
When a baby is born, the hospital will complete an application for the newborn’s birth certificate and send it to the state or local department of health, depending on the state in which the birth mother gives birth. The birth mother’s name and the birth father’s name, if he has signed a paternity affidavit at […]