An Analysis of the Legal Effect of Decree of Adoption in North Carolina - Research Paper Example

The primary purpose of the North Carolina adoption statutes are to " promote the integrity and finality of adoptions, to encourage prompt, conclusive disposition of adoption proceedings, and to structure services to adopted children, biological parents, and adoptive parents that will provide for the needs and protect the interests of all parties to an adoption, particularly adoptive minors" (Montgomery Law). Hence, North Carolina’s Statute § 48 1 106 entitled Legal effect of decree of adoption what happens between the involved parties (i.e. Adoptive parents, birth parents, adoptive child) after an adoption decree is signed.

Furthermore, it makes the living of someone else’s child legitimate to the adoptive parents’ side. This decree also dissolves the contact and any connection between a child and his or her biological parents and other members of the families which took place prior the signing of the adoption contract. Moreover, the adoptive family’s role is to take over the responsibilities and obligations previously possessed by the biological parents. Once the adoption decree is finalized, the adoptee will have a legal status corresponding to the adoptive-parent.

More so, the adopted child will bear the same status of a legitimate child and therefore may be able to inherit from the benefits of the adoptive parents through a law-guided inheritance of property when the parents die without a will. Furthermore, the biological parents will no longer hold any legal right and obligation toward the child. This further means that the adoptee child is not capable of inheriting from his or her biological parents any more, and vice versa. However, it is a different case when it comes to stepparent adoption.

“When a stepparent adopts his or her stepchild, the adoption does not terminate the relationship of the child with his or her natural, biological parent who is, of course, the spouse of the adopting stepparent” (Montgomery Law). The decree also explains that upon signing the decree, no class shall be established between a natural born child and an adopted child in any agreement. Thus, in any document, any reference to a natural person also includes the adopted persons not unless the document explicitly specified the exclusion of he adopted person.

It appears that the law was created to formalize and establish the legal connection between the adopted child and the adoptive parent. Being adopted says a lot about a person. Throughout history, adopted children have been portrayed as illegitimate. They are discriminated and deprived of the right to live in a healthy environment because it is believed that the original parents don’t want them to or that they should not have lived in the first place. The basic supposition is that birth parents do not want the child for reasons like it was made out of sin (i.e. the mother was raped, unplanned pregnancy etc.) so they decide to look for someone who would accept and love the baby.

Another reason could be that the birth parent is not well-enough to provide for the child so they had to look for parents who can provide the child’s basic needs such as nutrition, shelter and education. Either way, an adopted child is still portrayed as a big burden to a family. They will only cause chaos among adoptive family members and they are seen as parasites who want to infest the adoptive-families’ resources. Moreover, this law was created to legitimize the existence of an adopted child and prevent