In Florida, how can we adopt, with consent, the baby our friend is carrying?
Full Question:
Answer:
From your description, it does not appear that this is a surrogacy situation, but an open adoption where the birth parents and adoptive parents know each other.
An adoption establishes a legal parent-child relationship between the adoptee and the adoptive parents. This legal relationship is identical to the legal biological parent-child relationship. Florida law authorizes adoptions for all persons, minors and adults.
Florida’s current adoption law balances the interests of all parties, the biological parents, the adoptee and the adoptive parents. However, the biological parent’s rights are primary until that parent voluntarily surrenders their rights or fails to act to protect their rights under Florida Law.
Four types of adoptions exist in Florida: The entity adoption (an agency or intermediary facilitated adoption), the step-parent adoption, the close relative and the adult adoption. Each type of adoption has unique procedure.
A court presiding over any Florida adoption must receive proof that facts exist to terminate the biological parent-child relationship such as a properly executed consent for adoption or legal proof that the parent has abandoned the child or otherwise failed to protect their parental rights under Florida law. For example, although there are exceptions, an unmarried biological father must register his paternity with Florida’s Putative Father Registry; otherwise, the court will not require his consent before proceeding to complete an adoption plan. An unmarried biological father must register his paternity prior to the filing of a petition to terminate his rights.
A consent for adoption is only valid and binding when executed pursuant to the specific requirements of Florida Law. When a child under the age of six months is placed for adoption, the biological mother may not sign her consent for adoption until forty-eight hours after the child’s birth or on her date of discharge from the hospital or birth center which ever time is earlier. In these circumstances, a birth father may sign a consent for adoption at any time after the child’s birth.
Additionally, a legal or biological father may sign an irrevocable Affidavit of Non-paternity at any time, before or after the child’s birth, relinquishing parental rights. When a child is six months of age or older, the mother and father may sign the consent at any time and their consent is subject to a three day revocation. In either case, once the consents are signed with witness and notary, only the court presiding over the adoption can overturn the consents upon a finding that the consents were taken by fraud or duress.
After a court issues a judgment terminating the biological parent-child relationship, the time frame for completing the adoption differs. In the case of an entity adoption, the adoptive parents are not eligible to finalize their adoption until 30 days after the judgment terminating parental rights or 90 days after placement of the child in their home, which ever event occurs later. In the step-parent, close relative and adult adoption, the adoptive parents are eligible to immediately finalize their adoption. Additionally, in stepparent and close relative adoptions, the adopting parent(s) have the option of proceeding in a unified legal process in which the order finalizing the adoption also simultaneously terminates parental rights. A unified proceeding is typical for adult adoptions.
