Birth Legal Parent

Is a Step-Parent a Legal Guardian? A step-parent is not automatically a legal guardian of their step-children.As a step-parent, you do not have the authority to make legal decisions for your stepchild unless you have pursued legal actions to gain this right.

Never abandon your child. While most states have Safe Haven laws for infants within a certain age limit, leaving your older child without making the necessary legal arrangements is considered abandonment and will result in legal repercussions.

Without legal paternity, you have no rights to see the child, you have no rights to make any decisions about the child, and you have no rights to stop the mother and child from moving away.

Surrogacy involves a woman agreeing to carry a baby for someone else. After the baby is born, the birth mother gives custody and guardianship to the intended parent or parents. Surrogacy has complex legal and medical steps that must be met.

The legal father is the man the law recognizes as the father of the child. When a married couple has a child, the law automatically recognizes the husband as the child`s legal father; therefore, paternity does not need to be determined.

A legal parent includes a biological or adoptive parent, or a person that the state has determined to be your parent (for example, when a state allows another person's name to be listed as a parent on a birth certificate).The parent that you lived with most during the last 12 months.

The simple answer is that "No, a parent cannot give legal custody" to someone else. A parent can delegate legal authority to someone else with the intent that that person will have physical custody and responsibility to care for the child; but, that is not the same thing as "custody" decided by a court.

The answer is yes. Whether they plan on giving a baby up for adoption to a friend, family member, or someone they've met through their own networking efforts, these arrangements are known as independent, or identified, adoptions.

Because many teenagers and minors live with their parents, it's normal to wonder whether the baby's grandparents will play a role in the adoption process. The answer is no not unless the prospective birth mother wants them to. Your parents cannot force you into a certain unplanned pregnancy option.