Questions about Biological Parent’s Rights

What are biological parents’ rights?

Biological parents have the right to make a number of decisions with respect to a child's life. They are permitted to choose whether their children will attend public or private school or be homeschooled. Parents select a child's health care providers. They may even decide which religion their children will practice, or whether they will practice any religion at all. Of course, with these parental rights come a myriad of responsibilities. In some cases, these responsibilities are too much for the biological parents to handle. As such, birth parents may also choose to place their child up for adoption and relinquish their rights as biological parents. Below are some of the most commonly asked questions about a biological parent’s rights.

If a parent has not recognized parenthood, can they gain custody of the child?

In most situations, in order to gain custody of the child, you must first establish and gain paternity. The only way you may be awarded custody is if you can prove that the other parent is unfit. When such a case is taken before the court, the court makes the custody decisions based on what is in the best interest of the child. The court looks at the living situations of both parents, their lifestyles, their relatives, who they associate with, parenting skills and so forth, and any other situations that might affect the child’s wellbeing and childhood safety. Many times, if the court sees that the primary caregiver has the child’s best interest in mind, they would continue to have full custody of that child.

If the biological parents’ rights’ were terminated and adoption was granted, can they come back later and request custody of the child?

While biological parents can try and regain custody of the child by petitioning the court, in most cases the court would deny this request. The biological parents would need to establish a compelling reason for the court to even reconsider them for parental rights. If their parental rights were terminated, and the adoption was granted, the chances of regaining their biological parents’ rights and having the adoption withdrawn are unlikely. However, individual circumstances and the child’s best interests would be taken into consideration by the court to assess whether the biological parents have a compelling case for re-evaluating the case.

If proven to not be the biological father, how can you get your name removed from the birth certificate?

The name can only be removed if the father or mother gets a court order that says that the father is not to be listed on the birth certificate; that he is not the biological father and needs to clearly state the person’s name and the information that needs to be removed from the birth record.

How does a father go about drawing up paper work to give up parental rights and child support, if not married?

If someone feels or believes that he might be the biological father of a child, and is not married to the mother that gave birth to said child, the best and fastest way for the father to have his rights terminated is to ask for a paternity test in the court for the child to first establish and prove paternity. If he is not married and can establish that he is not the biological parent of the child, he would then have no legal rights to the child. Raising a child and protecting biological parent’s rights can be quite confusing when dealing with legal situations such as divorce, adoption or the child’s medical issues. Many times these types of situations can cause questions that need legal insights and Expert opinions.