Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts
I am recently married to a man that I have known for 15 years, together for 4 married for 1. My 11 year old daughter ADORES him - calls him daddy and completely sees him as her father. She does however have her biological father who (for court orders only) sees her 12 hours a month and that's it. If she wants to be adopted by my husband - what age will she need to be to persue this? We live in Mass.. Thankyou!
1 Answer from Attorneys
The short answer to your question is: the only thing preventing adoption by your current husband is your daughter's biological father. In order to proceed with a co-parent adoption, you will either need the consent of the biological father, or you will need to demonstrate his unfitness to parent and terminate his parental rights.
The benefits to your daughter's father (if you can call it that) is that he will no longer be responsible for child support and other expenses of your daughter. The difficult thing is that he will no longer be the father of his child. A co-parent adoption will terminate the biological father's rights, and create a permanent and legal parent-child relationship between your daughter and your husband.
Please feel free to contact my office at 617-357-4898 if you would like to discuss your options in greater detail.
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