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Panel backs streamlining adult-adoption process to remove parental-notice requirement
Summary
Legislation (HB 243) would eliminate mandatory parental notice and service requirements for adult adoptions, instead allowing courts to order investigations only on good cause, proponents told the Judiciary Committee.
The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony Jan. 30 on House Bill 243, which would streamline adult adoptions by removing statutory requirements to issue and serve show-cause orders on parents and by allowing courts to order investigations only when good cause is shown.
"Adult adoption happens for myriad of reasons," Delegate Regina T. Boyce said presenting the bill. She said HB 243 eliminates issuance and service of show-cause orders for adult adoptions and gives courts discretion to order investigations only where "good cause" exists.
Multiple witnesses, including adults who pursued step-parent adoptions, described emotional and procedural burdens under the current law. Kelly Rae, who said she adopted her son in 2022 at age 27, described a five-month process that required hiring an attorney, serving his birth mother, running a home study and criminal background check and placing advertising in a foreign country to locate a listed father. "Adult adoptees should have the right to decide without birth parent notification," Rae said.
Rachel Claremont (formerly Rachel Bennett) described longstanding verbal and emotional abuse by her biological mother and said removing parental-notice requirements would allow adult victims to formalize parentage without re-traumatizing contact with an abuser. Her father, David Bennett, and Barbara Bennett, the prospective adoptive parent, also testified about family history and the burdens adult adoptees face when the law requires parental consent for adult adoptions.
Judge Jennifer Fairfax, appearing on behalf of the judiciary, said the judiciary supports HB 243. Fairfax said in other jurisdictions such as the District of Columbia and Virginia, parental consent is not required for adult adoptions, and that requiring consent in Maryland has caused additional cost and trauma for adults seeking adoption after abuse, foster care, or other family circumstances.
Committee members asked procedural questions; proponents said the bill had been considered in prior sessions and had passed through the committee in earlier years. Committee discussion concluded with no recorded vote at the hearing.
