Can a Child Be Adopted with Only One Parent's Permission?

When the adoption of a child is going through legal proceedings, and both parents of said child are known, the courts must get both the biological mother and father's consent and permission recorded in the court documents for the adoption to be legal.

The biological mother or father does not have the legal right to severe the biological relationship without seeking consent of the other parent. This includes cases where one of the biological parent's has abandoned the responsibility of parenting. The standing biological parent must petition the non-engaged parent to give up parental rights and to allow for the adoption of the child in question. The courts will seek to notify the other parent through means of serving them the documents, and or placing a legal notice in the last home of record's newspaper. It will give that parent enough time to contact the courts and either give consent or contest the proceedings. When and if no response is made, the courts will then allow the adoption to go through with the court documents reflecting the efforts made to contact the other parent.

The courts would like to have both parents permission and consent for adoption on record, but unfortunately, this is not always the case; especially in circumstances where the biological mother is clueless to who the real biological father is. This occurs quite often, and even so, the biological mother who is seeking to place the child up for adoption must disclose any relevant information she may have to allow the courts to seek out paternity of the child, and then seek the consent and permission of the actually biological father. If the biological mother is so unsure of who fathered the child, the courts will make notice of this in the documents, and even allow for the child to be adopted if it is in the best interest of the child. But, if the true biological father happens be determined, he can petition the courts to reopen the adoption and even seek to contest the original proceedings. This is why the courts try to exhaust all means to have on record both biological parents consent and permission for adoption.

So yes, legally speaking, it is necessary to have both biological parents consent and permission on record for a legal adoption of a child. However, there are always situations where this will not be the case, but the courts will make the attempt to have both parents permission or have the court documents reflect why they were not able to get the permission of one of the biological parents.