Relative Adoptions

In this video, Page Provan Director and award-winning surrogacy lawyer, Stephen Page discusses relative adoptions.

Transcript

G’day, I’m Stephen Page from Page Provan Family and Fertility Lawyers, and today I’m talking about adoption. So I’ve been talking in a series of videos about adoption. I’ve talked about doing an adoption in a 1993 Hague inter-country adoption convention country.

I’ve talked about doing adoptions in two bilateral countries, which are South Korea and Taiwan. Although, of course, China would say Taiwan isn’t a country. I’ve talked about doing adoption in non-Hague countries that don’t have a bilateral relationship with Australia, such as Singapore.

I’ve talked about adoption and surrogacy, and I’ve talked about step-parent adoptions. This video, I’m talking about relative adoptions. Now, they’re not available everywhere, but they are available in some states and I just want to talk about New South Wales and Victoria because they are available in each of New South Wales and Victoria.

If you fit within the definition of who is a relative, and you may think, Well, of course, I’m a relative, I’m a cousin, et cetera, no, no, you’ve got to fit within the statutory definition of the Adoption Act of New South Wales or the Adoption Act of Victoria in this example. Then what you may be able to do is you may be able to adopt your relative.

This is the kind of typical situation when this happens is where sadly, for some reason or other, mum or dad go off the rails or unable to care for the child.

It may be that this child was an accident, that mum and dad have several children already and can’t care for this child or don’t think that they have the resources to do it and know that there’s a child’s relative who can care, I’ve had cases like that.

Then there may be the possibility of doing a relative adoption. That is going off, ultimately, to the county or Supreme Court of Victoria or the Supreme Court of New South Wales and getting an adoption order.

So they’re not available in all states, but if you fit the bill, you may be able to adopt and by doing so, rather than being an aunt or an uncle, for example, of this child, you’ll be seen in the law as a parent. So these applications are never made lightly. But if you think you fit within that category, then have a think about it, reach out, get advice.

Because a child only comes along once, and they deserve that protection and if you think it’s appropriate that there ought to be an adoption order to reflect the reality, then you should really think carefully about moving forward.

And if you’re going to do that, you should think carefully about getting advice so you know where the guideposts are, and you don’t go off the rails.

Thank you.