Legal status: legal parenthood and adoption
The significance of being a legal parent
Having status as a child’s legal parent is significant for many reasons, including:
- Financial responsibility: you have a duty to provide for your child.
- Inheritance rights: your child has rights of inheritance from you if you do not make a will, and you have the right to inherit from your child.
- General status: your child is covered by any reference to ‘children’ in documents such as family trusts, grandparents’ wills and pension policies.
- Citizenship and domicile status: you are likely to be able to confer your own British citizenship or domicile status upon your child (although the rules on transfer of nationality in international surrogacy and intercountry adoption cases are complex).
Parenthood is a permanent status; it applies throughout your child’s lifetime and can be extinguished only by the court granting an adoption or parental order.
Being a parent is not the same as having parental responsibility; it is possible both to be a parent without parental responsibility (for example an unmarried father) or to have parental responsibility without being a parent (for example a step-parent). Click here to find out more about parental responsibility.
Who are a child’s legal parents at birth?
For traditional families, the rules are straightforward: a child’s legal parents at birth are his or her biological mother and father. If the parents are married, the husband is presumed to be the father, but this can be challenged with DNA or other evidence showing that someone else is the biological father.
In assisted reproduction cases, special rules apply and biology does not always determine parenthood:
- A child conceived by a lesbian couple after 6 April 2009 can have two female parents rather than a mother and a father. Click here to find out more.
- A sperm donor who is the biological father might not be the legal father. Click here to find out more.
- The mother of a child conceived with donor eggs or through surrogacy is the woman who gave birth rather than the biological mother. Click here to find out more.
- The father of a child conceived through surrogacy might be the surrogate’s husband rather than the biological father. Click here to find out more.
Contesting parentage
Anyone can ask the court to decide whether he or she is a legal parent (provided that he or she has a sufficient personal interest with the situation and connection with the UK). You might want to apply for a declaration of parentage if you are involved in a dispute over biological paternity or how the law on parenthood applies (in relation to fertility treatment, donor conception or surrogacy). Contact us for further advice.
Becoming a legal parent through adoption
The most common way of extinguishing or acquiring legal parenthood is through an adoption order.
An adoption order is granted by the court and reassigns parenthood permanently, shifting parental status from the birth parents to the adoptive parents named in the order. It also confers parental responsibility on the adoptive parents.
The rules governing who can apply for an adoption order depend on whether you are applying to adopt:
- An unrelated child in the UK through an agency
- Your step-child (or other private non-agency cases)
- A child using intercountry adoption.
Contact us if you would like further advice or help. We act for parents and non-parent adults applying for UK and intercountry adoption, and particularly those in alternative family structures or after unsuccessful fertility treatment.
Becoming a legal parent through a parental order
A parental order has a similar effect to an adoption order, and applies to children born through surrogacy.
Like an adoption order, a parental order extinguishes the parenthood of the birth parents, and confers permanent legal parenthood and parental responsibility on the intended parents. Unlike adoption, a parental order triggers the reissue of the child's birth certificate in favour of the child's 'new' parents (with adoption, the birth certificate is replaced with an adoption certificate). Click here for more information on parental orders.
