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News ArticlesADOPTION – DOES IT TRULY SEVER ALL TIES?It is generally believed that an adoption severs all rights and responsibilities of the birth parents of a child who is being adopted. This is generally the case, however, it is not written in stone. Alberta’s Child Welfare Act, which is the legislation governing adoptions, indicates that “…for all purposes, when an adoption order is made, the adopted child ceases to be the child of that child’s previous parents… and that child’s previous parents cease to be that child’s parents and guardians”. In spite of this strong wording in the Child Welfare Act, caselaw indicates that many courts have taken the view that adoption does not necessarily sever all ties with the biological family in all circumstances. The thought behind this is that although an adoption may sever the relationship between the birth family and the adopted child “for all legal purposes”, there remain biological, cultural, and emotional links, that in certain situations need to be acknowledged and dealt with.It is quite clear that Alberta law does not allow the placing of conditions in an adoption order itself, however, the court does have jurisdiction to grant a separate order dealing with access between the biological family or other interested party, and the adopted child. Some examples of situations where this jurisdiction has been exercised are matters involving step-parent and relative adoptions. There have also been cases where an adopted child has had a prior relationship with a biological parent, foster parent, grandparent, or sibling and the continuation or re-establishment of the contact was deemed to be in the child’s best interests. The determining question in whether a court will grant an applicant party post-adoption rights, is always “what is in the best interests of the child?” In deciding this, the court can look at any number of factors in each given situation. There are no “rules”, thereby giving the court complete discretion in their findings. Perhaps because of this, there is an ever increasing number of so called “open-adoptions” where the parties involved create their own agreement with respect to contact between the birth family and the child. Although the courts have taken the position that there are some circumstances where biological parents and others with an interest in an adopted child may be granted post adoption rights, these circumstances are very much the exception, and not the rule. An adoption is still generally viewed as a deemed surrender of all parental rights and responsibilities by the biological parents, and therefore will usually constitute a complete severing of the ties between parents and child.
By Danielle
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