Adoption is the legal process in which a person assumes responsibility for the health, safety, well-being, and financial support of another person—usually a child—and terminates the rights and responsibilities of the adopted person’s biological parent or parents.
In California, adoption is governed by the California Family Code, which outlines the legal process for adopting a child. This process involves terminating the parental rights of the child's biological parents and establishing a new, permanent legal parent-child relationship with the adoptive parents. The adoptive parents assume all responsibilities for the child's welfare, including health, safety, and financial support. The process typically requires the consent of the biological parents, unless their rights have been terminated due to abandonment, neglect, or other serious reasons. Prospective adoptive parents must go through a home study process, receive approval from the court, and often work with an attorney to navigate the legal proceedings. Once the adoption is finalized by a court order, the adoptive parents have the same rights and obligations as if they were the child's biological parents, and the child has all the rights of a biological child, including the right to inherit.