Opinion ID: 1711854
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: second-parent adoption by unmarried adoptive parent

Text: The majority further bases its holding on the conclusion that B.P. must relinquish her parental rights because A.E. cannot adopt Luke without extinguishing B.P.'s parental rights. I also disagree with this conclusion, as an appropriate interpretation of Nebraska's adoption statutes reveals no basis for mandating this result. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 43-101(1) (Cum.Supp. 2000) provides: Except as otherwise provided in the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Act, any minor child may be adopted by any adult person or persons and any adult child may be adopted by the spouse of such child's parent in the cases and subject to sections 43-101 to 43-115, except that no person having a husband or wife may adopt a minor child unless the husband or wife joins in the petition therefor. If the husband or wife so joins in the petition therefor, the adoption shall be by them jointly, except that an adult husband or wife may adopt a child of the other spouse whether born in or out of wedlock. Section 43-111 provides: Except as provided in section 43-106.01... after a decree of adoption has been entered, the natural parents of the adopted child shall be relieved of all parental duties toward and all responsibilities for such child and have no rights over such adopted child or to his or her property by descent and distribution. In construing these statutes, the majority ignores the long-established rule that the adoption statutes should be given a liberal rather than a strict construction due to the humanitarian aspects and purposes of such statutes. See Neil v. Masterson, 187 Neb. 364, 191 N.W.2d 448 (1971). The tendency of all our decisions has been toward a liberal construction of the law in all cases of adoption. In re Estate of Taylor, 136 Neb. 227, 285 N.W. 538 (1939). The adoption statute is a humane provision, which looks to the interest of children primarily. This is its controlling idea and policy. Therefore, every reasonable intendment should be indulged, in case of doubt, in the line of promoting that object. Other courts have taken the same view, but, if it were otherwise, our duty to carry out an obvious legislative intent would be the same.... It has made, and is making, a multitude of happy homes, happy parents, happy children, and valuable members of society, and no narrow construction should be indulged in that will tend to defeat a result so obviously intended and in every way so beneficial. Ferguson v. Herr, 64 Neb. 649, 665, 94 N.W. 542, 545 (1903). The best interests of the child should be kept at the forefront of such an inquiry. See Yopp v. Batt, 237 Neb. 779, 467 N.W.2d 868 (1991). With that understanding in mind, the statutory scheme as a whole serves to advance two fundamental purposes: (1) ensuring that biological parents are informed of their rights and consent to the adoption proceedings and (2) providing for the best interests of the child. See, e.g., § 43-109. The majority analyzes the wrong issue: the question is not whether the statutes specifically permit a second-parent adoption where the adoptive parent and biological parent are not married, but instead whether the statutes explicitly prohibit such an adoption. The statutes provide, in extremely broad language, that any minor child may be adopted by any adult person or persons, § 43-101(1), if the county court finds that such adoption is for the best interests of such minor child, § 43-109(1). Our Legislature, like many others, has declined to make categorical assumptions about what adoptive parents or familial relationships are preferable and has instead left it to the county court to conduct a fact-specific inquiry into whether a particular adoption is in the best interests of the child. As stated by one commentator: [W]hat is unmistakably clear from looking at adoption statutes is the legislative delegation of decision-making power in individual cases to judges. Compelling functional justifications support this institutional design. Adoption law is built on a premise of delegation: the legislature grants broad powers to courts to make case by case decisions and to decide what arrangement is in a child's best interests. This sort of delegation, of course, goes beyond the adoption context and describes much of family law affecting children, such as custody and visitation decisions. ... The highly individualized and proceduralized fact-finding procedures used by judges enable them to engage closely with the specific circumstances in which children find themselves. Jane S. Schacter, Constructing Families in a Democracy: Courts, Legislatures and Second-Parent Adoption, 75 Chi.-Kent L.Rev. 933, 942-43 (2000). It is plainly inconsistent with such a scheme to interpret § 43-111 as requiring the extinguishment of a biological parent's parental rights under circumstances such as those presented in this case. As stated by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts: The purpose of the termination provision is to protect the security of the child's newly-created family unit by eliminating involvement with the child's natural parents. Although it is not uncommon for a natural parent to join in the adoption petition of a spouse who is not the child's natural parent ... the statute has never been construed to require the termination of the natural parent's legal relationship to the child in these circumstances.... Reading the adoption statute as a whole, we conclude that the termination provision ... was intended to apply only when the natural parents (or parent) are not parties to the adoption petition. (Citations omitted.) Adoption of Tammy, 416 Mass. 205, 216, 619 N.E.2d 315, 321 (1993). The termination provision was designed as a shield to protect new adoptive families, [but] was never intended as a sword to prohibit otherwise beneficial intrafamily adoptions by second parents. Matter of Jacob, 86 N.Y.2d 651, 669, 660 N.E.2d 397, 405, 636 N.Y.S.2d 716, 724 (1995). Compare In re Estate of Luckey; Bailey v. Luckey, 206 Neb. 53, 291 N.W.2d 235 (1980). The majority implicitly acknowledges as much when it concedes that § 43-111 is not operative when the adoptive parent is the spouse of the child's biological parent. This concession is made, however, despite the fact that when read literally, § 43-111 sets forth no exception to the termination provision, regardless of whether the adoptive parent is married to the biological parent. The majority makes little effort to explain why an exception is warranted under one circumstance, but not the other. Notably absent from the majority's analysis is any consideration of what this court has previously held to be the primary interpretive principle applicable to the adoption statutes: the best interests of children. By prioritizing the relationship between the adults, the majority relegates to the shadows the relationship most directly at issuethat of parent and child. We are not called upon to pass judgment on the relationship between A.E. and B.P. or to make a policy determination regarding the advantages or disadvantages of second-parent adoptions in general. If any policy determination is to be made in that regard, it is a decision for the Legislature to make within the bounds of the constitutionand the Legislature has thus far been silent on the question. The adoption statutes, properly construed, permit any person or persons, married or unmarried, to petition the county court for a decree of adoption, but require them to obtain the necessary consents and to show that such adoption is in the best interests of the child. There is no bar in the statutes to unmarried couples seeking to jointly adopt, or seeking a second-parent adoption, to both join in such a petition. In the case of a second-parent adoption, whether the couple is married or not, when the adoption is shown to be in the best interests of the child, the county court may specify that both parties to the petition are decreed to be the parents of the minor child; that is, permit the adoptive parent to adopt the child while allowing the biological parent to retain all his or her parental rights and obligations. This result is consistent with the statutory language; is the most flexible and sensible approach to interpreting statutes that will be applied to a wide variety of unforeseeable circumstances; and, most importantly, maintains the longstanding rule that the adoption statutes must be reasonably interpreted to effectuate the best interests of adoptive children. Given our long-established principle of interpreting the adoption statutes liberally to effectuate the best interests of the child, I conclude that there must be an unequivocal indication of legislative intent to abandon the best interests of the child standard before limiting who can be an adoptive parent. The Nebraska adoption statutes evidence no such unequivocal intent. I would hold that the statutes permit a second-parent adoption of a minor child by an adoptive parent who is not married to the child's biological parent, so long as the biological parent consents to the adoption and the adoption is found to be in the child's best interests.