ABA Family Legal Guide

Family Law

Children

Adoption

If biological parents give up a child to adoption, what rights and obligations do they retain?

In general, they lose all rights and have no obligations. They have no right of contact with the child, cannot obtain information about the child, and so on. And they have no obligation to support the child.

However, there is a growing movement toward "open adoptions," in which parents may, by agreement, retain some rights to contact with the child and information about the child. See the "Open Adoption" sidebar below.