Opinion ID: 1149593
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Heading: Statutory Scheme Limiting Natural Rights of Parents

Text: In the absence of a statute, the natural right of a parent to his child requires that his consent must be obtained before his parental rights and duties may be terminated and reestablished in adoptive parents. Roy v. Speer, 249 La. 1034, 192 So.2d 554 (1966); Green v. Paul, 212 La. 337, 31 So.2d 819 (1947); State ex rel. Simpson v. Salter, 211 La. 918, 31 So.2d 163 (1947); Adoption of Edwards, 369 So.2d 210 (La.App. 3d Cir.1979); Comment, In re CDT: The Need For Greater Clarity in Private Adoption, 44 La.L.Rev. 845, 847 (1984). Consequently, unless parental rights have been severed by consent or lawful process, a parent has the right of withholding his consent to the adoption or the surrender of custody of his child to a third person. In re J.M.P., 528 So.2d 1002 (La.1988); State ex rel. Martin v. Garza, 217 La. 532, 46 So.2d 760 (1950); State ex rel. Birch v. Baker, 147 La. 319, 84 So. 796 (1920). The private adoption statutes purport to drastically limit this right by establishing a scheme whereby the mother of an illegitimate child may, without the consent of the natural father, terminate his right to withhold such consent by surrendering the child for adoption after refusing to put his name on the child's birth certificate. When the identity of the father of an illegitimate child is not indicated on the birth certificate, the mother's act of surrendering the child for adoption terminates all parental rights whatsoever, except for his standing to oppose the adoption at the best interest hearing. La.R.S. 9:422.8. Moreover, the father may not place his name on the birth certificate without the mother's consent. La.R.S. 40:34(B)(1)(a)(iv) and (h). Consequently, the mother of an illegitimate child has the power to deprive the unwed father of his natural parental right to custody and to veto the adoption by withholding his consent. If she does so, the father loses all rights to the child, except in the unlikely event that the court later should find that the adoption is not in the child's best interest. Furthermore, even his standing to oppose the adoption is waived if the father does not file a formal acknowledgment of the child prior to the mother's act of surrender. La.R.S. 9:422.10(C) & 422.14(A). The private adoption statute does not require that the non-designated unwed father be afforded any notice or a hearing prior to the termination of his parental rights by the mother's act of surrender of the child. See La.R.S. 9:422.8. After the surrender, the statute expressly provides that the natural parents of the child shall not be served with notice of filing of the adoption petition. La.R.S. 9:425.