Birth Father's rights in adoption?

Question

We live in Texas. We are sending papers asking for our baby's birth father to terminate his rights. From what we know, he is jobless, pretty much homeless (lives with a bunch of family members), and has an old drug conviction. We feel pretty certain he will terminate his rights, but there is that fear he won't. What is the process if he doesn't sign the papers? How much legal standing does he have? We have had our baby for 5 months and we are scheduled to formally adopt him pretty soon. We really hope everything goes smoothly.

Answer 1

Based on the details you've provided, you sound like you're in a good position, I wouldn't worry (although a former drug conviction doesn't mean much...if he's a current user, though, that's a big deal).

What is your relationship to the child though?  Are you family members of the mothers?  Friends?  Foster parents?  I'm not sure it matters...I think I'm asking out of curiosity.

Good luck!

Answer 2

aren't you going through an agency or atty?

Is this a do-it yourself adoption?

Answer 3

they give the mother thr right to terminate the life  of an unborn fetus without the fathers approval....why not allow her to give up the baby for adoption without it too

Answer 4

If the birth father refuses to sign over his rights that means you can't adopt the child.  The father has a right to see his child even if he is a druggie.

Answer 5

Whatever you do, make sure that it all goes through the proper legal channels.  DO NOT contact the birth father yourself.  If you do that, he can claim diress or coersion and that would nullify the adoption when it happens (and could subject you to legal problems).  Just let your attorney handle it.  The good news is that most states have a set time period after he is served during which he must act.  If he fails to exercise his rights during that time period, he forfeits his rights by default.

Answer 6

I hope he signs the papers for you.  He doesn't sound like his is capable of taking care of anything, let alone a child.  I hope you win, and congratulations.

Answer 7

I must say that people like the poster of this question, completely disgust me. You are talking about taking a child away from the father.

Let me tell you what you could get in the end.  You could get someone like me chasing after you for the next decade and a half. Someone working to get you into court every single day.

FYI: be careful of not doing it legally and ethically. The are some new laws and precedents within the past few years. I am working on Fighting the State of DE for violating the 14 amendment, because of their voluntary acknowledgments of paternity and adoptions. I hope to force them to change the law to safeguard father's rights, because what happened to me should not be allowed.

Answer 8

I don't know much about American adoption laws (i'm British),but i just wanted to wish you all the best with this.

From the sounds of it,the baby is much,much better off with you anyway!

x

Answer 9

If he does not sign, you can file a request for the state to terminate his rights.  Now, there are some timespans to consider.  The state will look at the span of time of contact of the birth parent as well as time span the birth parent provided financial support.  Unfortunately, I do not know what Texas uses.  When I sued for adoption in Illinois, I think it was 1 year.  My daughter's birth father had not seen her in 4.5 years.  He did refuse so that is what our lawyer advised us to do.  The courts agree the birth father did not make a conscious attempt to contact her or support her so they terminated his rights.

Answer 10

whoa, slow down.  You can't be scheduled to adopt the baby till all parental rights are terminated. And it takes a court and judge to do this. Have the mom's rights been terminated yet? Does the father know he has a child? If he is not in agreement then it could take years to terminate his rights, if ever.

Answer 11

as a birth fater he has all the rights he wants.. how ever it doesnt sound like he has a leg to stand on in supporting and taking care of the child. it could be a long battle if he doesnt sign. Texas doesnt like splitting up families.. unless they are convicted of murder. you can beat the living h**l out of your child here and go thru therapy and get them back. if he lives with family he could use that as a support system. unfortunately if he can prove to the courts that he is rocovering from any drug issues and has a support system in place then there isnt much you can do as far as forcing rights away from him. best thing you can do is create a paper trail and try to dig up as much as possible.

i only say the above from a personal experience.. i wish you the best of luck..

Answer 12

The rights of the biological father are just as valid as the rights of the biological mother.

The sad part is it doesn't matter of what character he is.

He can be a drug addict, a bum,  a criminal......whatever,  and he still has the rights to his biological child.  

Your best hope is that he will terminate his rights to the child on his own accord.  It is nearly impossible for the state to terminate the rights of a parent.  

The jails are full of people on death row who refuse to give up their rights.  Foster homes are full of children who will never be placed with their parents, but the parents still refuse to give up their rights.

You seem to hear about parents who have had their parental rights taken away, but truth be told, this is a very rare occurrence.  

My prayers are with you.  As with so many cases like yours, he may not want to be responsible for child support. That would be greatly in your favor.

Answer 13

Please read this! There are a lot of answers but I went through his 2 years ago IN TEXAS.

You and the agency of course need to do what you can to get him to voluntarily sign to terminate his parental rights. He does not technically have any till the baby is born, but waivers signed during pregnancy  by the father stand.

If he does not do this, or cannot be contacted, you must advertise in the newspaper. Thats right: take out an ad in the paper, listing the moms name and other relevant info. Run it for weeks. When he does not respond, this satisfies your legal requirement.

Answer 14

Consult the lawyer or agency you adopted through.  If you didn't use a lawyer or agency, then you should consult with a lawyer to help you with this.

Answer 15

He has just as many rights, so to speak, as the birth mother. However, with his issues, the likelihood of him getting custody of the baby is slim. If he turns himself around, though, he could get the baby. Also, if his family wants custody, they can take the baby if he signs off on that.

Answer 16

legally after birth the child is in custody of the mother unless u were married and or he sign the voluntary acknowledgment of paternity papers. the biological father may be required to pay child support from the date of birth until the child is 18 years of age. the father may also have to pay public assistance,medical cost,and provide medical insurance until the child is 18

Answer 17

gotta wait and see if he signs.  as his birth father he has every right not to sign the papers and possibly  could fight for the baby.

Answer 18

its hard to tell depends if you get him in good mood they generally don't care about the kid period its them they are worried about. but you know even if you get soemthing signed does not mean the judge will go alone with it. soemtimes they do and sometimes they dont' so i will pray for you

Answer 19

Hi. My husband is an atty here in Florida and does Family Law. I think you are pretty safe to assume that he will sign the papers.  I'm sure he wants the best life for his baby, just like you do & I'm sure he will realize the best thing is YOU & YOUR HUSBAND.  

I will keep you all in our prayers.  Many blessings, Patti

Answer 20

A very similar scenario happened with my good friend's daughter.  The daughter was a teen mom and made the sacrifical decision to give the baby to a loving couple.  It was an open adoption, she chose the adoptive parents.  The adoption proceedings began despite the birth father's identity being in question.  They lived in Florida, suspected birth father lived in Michigan.  Paternity test proved he was the father and he started (with a lot of pressure from his sister) to fight for the baby despite the fact the baby was doing tremendously in a stable, loving, 2 parent home while birth dad was a teenager, high school drop out, job-less, home-less (lived with a variety of relatives/friends), and had been arrested more than once on drinking and drug charges.  Birth dad came to Florida and petitioned the court for custody.  The case went before the judge, he ruled in favor of the adoptive parents, legally terminated birth father's parental rights.  It was, unfortunately, a very long drawn out court battle, but the adoptive parents were able to keep the baby with them the whole time.  Birth father did get to see the baby a few times in a nuetral setting with a representative from the courts to supervise.  It was a cause for deep prayer for many months.  My friend, the baby's birth grandma, was able to visit with him occassionally until he turned 3.  Now, she gets letters and pictures at Christmas and on his birthday.  He will be able to contact her when he is older and if he wants to.  Birth mom moved to MI to be with birth dad, but it didn't work out.  Don't give up the fight.  Hopefully your baby's birth dad will sign the papers, but if he doesn't, the ball is in his court.  He has to petition the court and do the fighting.  It takes a lot of time, money, effort, and perserverance to pursue this and the chances of him following through sound pretty unlikely.  Not to exasperate you, but my friend's grandson was not fully and completely adopted by his adoptive parents until just before he turned 2 years old with all the court business they had to go through.

Answer 21

If he is deemed from the court as an unfit parent, they may force him to terminate his rights, and he has no legal standing.

If the court doesn't deem him unfit, he needs to willingly sign off his rights.

However, being jobless with a drug problem (if it can be proved in court) would probably deem him unfit.

GET AS MUCH EVIDENCE AS YOU CAN TO PROVE YOUR ALLEGATIONS!!!!!!!

Answer 22

with his background it doesnt sound as if he has a chance for visitations even. I wouldnt be worried. Im sure he knows his chance and may sign his rights away. he may be a bad person in his past or even now. But remeber the baby has its rights to know his real father in the future.