Parental Termination and Adoption
Termination of parental rights ends the legal parent-child relationship. Once the relationship has been terminated, the child is legally free to be adopted to secure a more stable, permanent family environment meeting the child’s long-term parenting needs. Termination may be voluntary or involuntary, and birth parents who wish to put their child up for adoption may voluntarily relinquish their parental rights.
Daniel Albert Law takes it upon themselves to safeguard the rights of innocent children under any circumstances. Such children deserve a healthy and happy home and should enjoy their lives while they grow up. It forms the essence of our prerogative to set up attorneys who specialize in the termination of the rights of parents when the parents refuse their child and set up a humane adoption procedure that can rehabilitate such children.
When addressing whether parental rights should be terminated involuntary, the following procedures need to be followed by the courts:
Determine, in clarity and indisputable evidence that the parent is unfit
Determine whether severing the parent-child relationship is in the child’s best interests
The grounds which determine whether parental rights are terminated are specific circumstances under which the child cannot be maintained safely in their own home because of the risk of harm by the parent or the inability of the parent to fulfill the child’s basic needs. Each State is responsible for establishing the statutory grounds, and these can vary by the State.
The most common statutory grounds for calling out a parent on their unfitness include the following:
- Severe or chronic abuse or neglect
- Sexual Abuse
- Abuse or neglect of other children in the household
- Abandonment of the child
- Long-term mental illness or deficiency of the parents
- Long-term alcohol- or drug-induced incapacity of the parents
- Failure to support or maintain contact with the child
- Involuntary termination of the rights of the parent of another child
The above factors are grounds for terminating the parental rights when the parent has failed to correct the conditions or parental behaviors that led to State intervention. They cannot provide a safe home for the child despite reasonable efforts by the State agency to provide services to prevent placement out-of-home or to achieve family reunification.
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting, usually a child, from that person’s biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the birth parents to the adoptive parents.
Your Child is Same as Ours
A relationship between parents and their children is a beautiful thing to witness. Some people, however, are unfit to be called parents because they cannot meet the essential criteria of having a child: providing them a safe home to live in. Then others cannot meet the basic expectations of a parent. Daniel Albert Law firm wants to make lives easier for such children and facilitate a case of termination of rights and adoption wherever it is possible in such cases. Please call us at 832-930-3059 to book a consultation if you know children living in unfavorable circumstances.