Adopting after fertility treatment – a modern families solution to legal parenthood

Adoption is most commonly understood to be a process where a person or couple assume care of an unknown child following a rigorous assessment either carried out by their Local Authority or local adoption agency. It is the legal mechanism that transfers legal parenthood and parental responsibility to the adopters and is intended to be the lifelong solution to secure permanency for the child.

But in what other situations is this legal process applicable?

With a rise in couples undergoing fertility treatment both in and out of the UK there are sometimes situations in which the law does not automatically recognise someone who is (and always intended to be) a parent as the child’s legal parent. The only solution to secure legal parenthood in some of those cases is a post-birth adoption order the effect of which is to bring the legal position in line with everyone’s intentions at the point of conception.

As a team specialising in fertility and adoption law we regularly advise on these situations and it is important for family lawyers advising on cases like this to think outside the box to find...

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