Adoptions are about establishing the parent-child relationship where before the parents and child were legal strangers. It is about giving to both parent and child all rights and duties incident to the relationship. When an adoption occurs, the legal relationship between the adopted child and the biological parents is severed except for the child's inheritance rights, which the child retains unless the court provides otherwise.
Adoption is a statutory process that was unrecognized in the common law.
Compliance with statutory requirements are essential. Adoption may not occur in the absence of specific statutory authority. Thus, unless a person asserting an adoption has complied with statutory adoption requirements, no legal change of the child's status occurs. These circumstances are narrowly defined. In an adoption proceeding the child's rights and welfare are given paramount importance.