§60.03 General Concepts

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§ 60.03 GENERAL CONCEPTS

[1] What Is Adoption?

Adoption is a legal and social process to establish the legal relationship of child and parent when they were not so-related by birth. State ex rel. D.R.M., 109 Wn. App.182, 34 P.3d 887 (2001). Although the word "adoption" is not defined by statute, the outcome of the adoption process is defined and described as making the adoptee:

to all intents and purposes, and for all legal incidents, the child, legal heir, and lawful issue of the adoptive parent, entitled to all rights and privileges, including the right of inheritance and the right to take under testamentary disposition, and subject to all the obligations of a natural child of the adoptive parent.

RCW 26.33.260(1).

As between the child and the birth parents, the process of adoption involves the termination of all legal rights, powers, privileges, immunities, duties, and obligations with respect to each other, with the notable exception of past-due child-support obligations. RCW 26.33.130(2), .260. The finality and completeness of this termination cannot be overemphasized. Not only are the birth parents' legal rights completely severed, but also any "rights" of other relatives are forever cut off. For example, in Bond v. Yount, 47 Wn. App. 181, 734 P.2d 39 (1987), the maternal grandparents adopted a child whose parents both consented to such adoption. The court held that the adoptive parents (here, the maternal grandparents) could legally prevent the paternal grandparents from any visitation: "There is no policy stronger or more consistently followed in this state than that protecting the sanctity and privacy of adoptions. When an adoption has become final, previous ties to natural parents are completely severed and a wholly new relationship is created." Id. at 183; see also In re Custody of B.S.Z.-S., 74 Wn. App....