Nothing else about the adoption process would change. Second parent adoption in such cases would be subject to home study and would proceed only upon a determination by the Court of Probate that the adoption would be in the best interests of the child. Some of them are here today. The only thing we do not currently permit under our statutes is the legal adoption of a child by the second parent in those families. And frankly, it is hard to understand why we would continue a public policy that withholds the legal protection of adoption from a child whose established reality includes loving relationships with two unmarried parents.
Adoption carries with it a bundle of legal and financial responsibilities and benefits.
Second parents seek to adopt so that they will continue to be the parent to their child in the tragic event that the other parent dies. They also seek to adopt so that they will have unquestioned parental rights to make emergency medical decisions for their children, or so that their children will be covered under their Social Security benefits. They seek to adopt so that there is legal clarity about custody, visitation and child support in the event that the adult partners split up, just as married couples sometimes do. Parents who adopt willingly accept certain responsibilities under the law, such as child support, because they love their children as much as any parent does. Second parent adoptions are not new.