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Originally Posted by gamom4  What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts.
I have a 12 year old daughter whose biological father has not seen her since she was barely 2. This was in Virginia. When she was 3, I met a wonderful man who gladly stepped in as her father and has been in that role ever since. We have been married for 5 years now, living in MA since 2001. Her bio father found my facebook page and has expressed an interest in establishing contact. For several reasons, I don't want that to happen at this stage of my daughter's life, not least of which was that he was an abusive alcoholic when I left him. I have two questions: do we need his permission for my husband to legally adopt her, and does the bio. father have any legal rights to contact after all this time with no contact? |
You do need to either obtain Dad's permission or have Dad's rights terminated involuntarily; whether you currently have the grounds to do that will largely depend on if Dad was ever legally established as Dad. So - was he?
Even an absentee parent has the right to - literally - walk back into their child's life after many years of no contact. The only way this can be avoided is, again, having Dad's rights terminated.
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08-30-2009, 01:17 PM
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