Legal Question in Family Law in Arkansas
adoption without name change
Almost a year ago my son married a girl with two children. Recently she announced that she had a conversation with her ex-husband about my son adopting the kids. The conditions were the kids could not take my son's name and the biological father got to keep his visitation rights. My son is considering this because she has told him that they are her kids and she gets to choose their last name. We are afraid that she will talk my son into this adoption and then go back to her ex and take the kids since we have known all along that given the chance she would go back to him. Can they fix it so the kids keep the ex's name and keep his visitation rights and if so if the adoption goes through and they do go back together what rights if any does my son have then?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: adoption without name change
Once your son adopts those children his wife's ex-husband loses ALL rights to them. They cannot keep the ex-husband's last name and the ex-husband cannot have visitation.
An adoption is a complete severance and termination of the ex-husband's parental rights. Once completed, a new birth certificate is issued showing your son as the natural father. The ex-husband no longer exists.
The fact that your son's wife still wants the children to keep the "ex's" his last name and to continue seeing him tells me she is not really interested in an adoption.
Butch
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