Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

Re: child

A father can voluntarily terminate his rights to the child.

A parent cannot legally terminate his or her parental rights [except in adoption

I see your question has been answered by another attorney. I disagree with his conclusion that: �A father can voluntarily terminate his rights to the child.� In my view, only a court of law can terminate a parent�s rights, and even then, the father has no right to prosecute a petition to terminate his own rights in a child. Please permit me to explain further:

First of all, �give up all rights� can mean many things. For example, if a child were going to be adopted by another person(s), it would be possible for the father to surrender his rights to the child. This is done in a court case. In such a circumstance, once the adoption is approved by the court, the father would no longer have any rights or obligations regarding the child.

The conclusion that only a court can terminate parental rights, does not mean that the father cannot �give up� rights. By example, if a father only wanted to give up his right to visitation with the child, he could do that simply by not exercising his right to visitation. If a father only wanted to give up the his right to communicate with his child, he could do so simply by not communicating with the child. Suppose the father wanted to give up the right to be involved in important decisions concerning the child. He could do this simply by refusing to be involved in the decisions. In short, the father can �give up� his rights to the child by merely ignoring the child, but the issue does not end there. The father�s actions do not terminate parental rights.

In particular, no matter how disinterested a parent may be in a child, the parent remains fully liable for the support of his child. You can�t �give up all rights� to a child to avoid paying child support. If it were possible to stop paying child support by terminating one�s parental rights, many many non-custodial parents would line up to do that. There is no way to terminate parental rights to avoid a child support obligation, unless and until someone else is willing to take over the obligation to support the child (e.g., adoption).

What�s more, even if a father were to file a petition in court to terminate his parental rights [outside the adoption context], he could not proceed on the petition. Only a State�s Attorney can do that. [In re D.S., 198 Ill.2d 309 (2001) (the Illinois Supreme Court).

In sum, the father CANNOT voluntarily terminate his parental rights to a child.

Re: Clarification of answer

I agree with the comments of the previous attorney.

To expand on my prevous answer, a father can never voluntarily relinquish his obligations of financial support for his child. However, a father may choose how involved he wishes to be. A father can give up custody rights to a child and still be responsible for child support. However, in dealing with custody one would need to obtain court approval.

Re: child

If you wish to avoid child support, no luck. However, if you wish to give up other rights, such as visitation, etc., it can be done simply by not being there or by allowing a court order to be entered reflecting the same. Also, if you wish to give up the rights due to the other parent wishing to have the child adopted by their new spouse, it will be addressed through the court proceedings.