Can An Adoption Be Reversed?

Adoption serves to place a child under the care of adoptive parents who wish to provide care for the youngster. However, adoption may fail to work out in some cases for one reason or another. This begs the question: can an adoption be reversed? Read on to find out.

Disrupting an adoption

There are instances where the decision to halt the adoption may happen before the actual finalization of the adoption process. One of the reasons could be that the adoptive parents have changed their minds and wished not to continue with the adoption. Another reason could be the potential adopted parents have unearthed negative information regarding the health of the child and thus wish not to take care of the child. In such circumstances, the party who desires to halt the adoption proceedings contacts the adoption agency and notifies them immediately. With the help of a family lawyer, the party will have to file a petition to the family court and state their supposed compelling reason why they wish to rescind the adoption.

Which parties can annul an adoption?

Parties who can quash an adoption generally comprise the adoptive parents, the birth parents as well as the adoptee or the child set up for adoption.

Annulment by adoptive parents

Adoptive parents may come to a decision that the adoption has failed to work out for them. In such a case, they ought to file a petition with the help of a family lawyer to the family court requesting to terminate the adoption. Regardless of their reasons, they must convince the court that it's not in the best interest of the child to go on with the adoptive relationship.

Annulment by birth parents

To reclaim their parental rights, birth parents may resort to reversing an adoption. This is by far the hardest way to annul an adoption. In fact, in some jurisdictions, it's impossible. In states where this is admissible, birth parents must typically provide sufficient proof to portray a remarkable improvement or turnaround in their ability to provide care for the kid.

Annulment by the adopted child

The adoptee may desire to have his or her adoptive relationship rescinded for some reasons. For example, one may want to be emancipated from the adoptive relationship, wishing to be treated as an adult in the eyes of the law. In some cases, due to the poor relationship with their adoptive parents, the adoptee may want to reverse this status. Other times, the adoptee just wishes to restore contact with their real parents. Once the court deems the reason given by the adoptee as concrete enough, the adoption can be annulled.

For more information or to get assistance to start this process, talk with a solicitor in your area. 


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