Also known as: parent child legal relationship · filiation · parental rights
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A legal status that confers rights and obligations between a parent and child. This status requires consent from both biological parents for adoption unless rights have been terminated or consent is waived after notice and hearing. It also determines standing in custody proceedings and bars certain parties from altering the relationship through arbitration or donor agreements without formal compliance.
Piper Patel, the biological mother of an infant, signed a consent form naming Pearl Porter as adoptive parent. Patrick Phan, the unmarried biological father, provided no financial support and never registered with the state putative father registry. The court held a hearing after notice to Phan and waived his consent because his inaction amounted to abandonment against the child's best interest, allowing the adoption to proceed on Patel's consent alone.
Pablo Perez sought a custody order in State A after his former partner moved the child out of state. The court required notice and an opportunity to be heard for the mother, whose parental rights had never been terminated, and for the grandmother who held physical custody. Without that notice the resulting custody determination could not bind those parties.
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Pilar Pena and her spouse used donor sperm from Premier Manufacturing clinic under a written agreement that preserved no donor rights. The donor later sought to establish paternity. Because no written agreement preserved his rights under Kansas law, the court held he was not a legal parent of the child.
Penelope Price and her former spouse submitted all disputes, including child-related matters, to arbitration. The arbitrator issued an award terminating Price's parental rights. The court vacated that portion of the award because arbitrators lack authority to terminate parental rights under the governing act.
Patrick Phan failed to register with the state paternity registry before the child's adoption proceeding began. Because a parent-child relationship had already been established under state law through his marriage to the birth mother at the time of birth, he was not required to register to receive notice.
Crispina and Mark Calvert entered a surrogacy contract with Anna Johnson under which Johnson would carry a child conceived with the Calverts' genetic material. After birth Johnson sought to retain parental rights. The court held that the Calverts were the legal parents because the written agreement and genetic connection established the parent-child legal relationship under California law.
Consent of both biological parents is generally required as the first step in adoption. The father's consent may be unnecessary if the parents were unmarried and he failed to register or manifest responsibility, or if rights have already been terminated after notice and hearing.
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Notice and an opportunity to be heard must be given to any parent whose rights have not been terminated and to any person with physical custody before a court makes a child-custody determination.
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No. Under Kansas law a sperm donor has no parental rights unless a written agreement with the recipient preserves those rights. Absent the writing the donor is not a legal parent.
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No. The Uniform Family Law Arbitration Act prohibits an arbitrator from issuing an award that terminates parental rights.
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A man need not register if a parent-child relationship has already been established under state law or if he commences a parentage proceeding before termination of his rights.
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…proceedings, in denaturalization proceedings, in civil commitment proceedings, and in proceedings for the termination of parental rights. Further, this level of proof, "or an even higher one, has traditionally been imposed in cases involving allegations of civil fraud, and in a variety of other kinds of civil cases involving…