Surrogacy, Adoption and Beyond: Your Parental Rights in Rhode Island

As the holidays approach, family is at the forefront in many people’s minds. Families come in every variety of size, color, age, gender and chaos. Some families look like the Cleavers or the Cosbys. Others look more like the Simpsons or the Tanners – and others are their own version of a Modern Family. Although all these family makeups are unique, a common thread is the desire to create the family you have dreamed of and protect the family you built. When the journey to creating a family takes a more unconventional path, it is important to make sure you are taking the necessary legal steps to protect your rights and set up your family for success.

Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act

The passage of the Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act (R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-8.1) has made building, preserving, and protecting families of every kind easier. Similar versions of the Uniform Parentage Act have been adopted in a handful of states throughout the country, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington.

Surrogacy

One way in which people, particularly same sex couples or couples or have struggled with infertility, start and/or expand their families is through use of a surrogate — a person who carries and gives birth to a child made up of the intended parents’ genetic material. With the Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act, parents looking to expand their families through a surrogate have the ability to not only execute a surrogacy agreement, but to seek a “birth order” from the Family Court, prior to the child’s birth, which identifies them as the child’s legal parents and allows them to be added to the child’s birth certificate as his or her legal parents right after birth (R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-8.1-801-808). This important step makes sure the intended parents are the child’s legal parents immediately upon birth.

Assisted Reproduction

Assisted reproduction includes a broad range of possibilities. It could be a same sex couple using artificial insemination or a sperm donor, or a couple who has struggled with infertility using donated embryos or in vitro fertilization to make their dreams of starting or expanding their family a reality. Under the Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act, families using assisted reproduction can seek a parentage order or determination of parentage from the Court before or after the child’s birth. Similar to surrogacy, seeking the order prior to birth allows the intended parents to be listed on the birth certificate without the necessity of a later adoption proceeding (R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-8.1-701-709).

De Facto Parentage

The Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act has also made it easier for people who may not be genetically related to a child, but for all intents and purposes have been that child’s parent, to establish legal parentage over that child. We all learned from the Brady Bunch and Punky Brewster that “family” is not limited to genetics. Family is made up of the people who consistently show up and take care of the ones they love — even when those people overcook the Thanksgiving turkey or accidentally put their Christmas tree through the neighbor’s window. Pursuant to the Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act, these “de facto parents” are people who have 1) resided with the child as a regular member of the child’s household for a significant period of time; 2) have engaged in consistent caretaking of the child; 3) have undertaken full and permanent responsibilities of a parent of the child without expectation of financial compensation; 4) have held out the child as their own; and 5) have established a bonded and dependent relationship with the child which is parental in nature. In these situations, “de facto parents” can petition the Court to seek to be named one of the child’s legal parents. (R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-8.1-501-502).

Stepparent Adoption

If a stepparent has been significantly involved in a child’s life but does not meet the factors of a “de facto” parent — for example they have not held themselves out as the child’s parent, there may still be an option for that stepparent to adopt the child. A stepparent adoption is a process outside of the Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act and is governed by R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-7. If the child has two legal parents, in order to grant a stepparent adoption, the Court must terminate the rights of one of the legal parents (the parent not married to the moving stepparent). This can be done by agreement or be a finding that the second legal parent has abandoned, neglected or abused their parental rights such that it rises to the level of an involuntary termination. When a stepparent who has resided with a child is seeking to adopt their stepchild they can request that the Court waive the standard adoption home study.

Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage

Another feature of the Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act is the Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage (“VAP”). This provision allows certain persons, specifically including: an intended parent of a child conceived through assisted reproduction or a surrogacy agreement, and the spouse of the person who gave birth to the child, to execute a VAP form through the Rhode Island Department of Health at the time of the child’s birth. (R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-8.1-301-312).

Adoption

The Rhode Island Uniform Parentage Act has made it easier for people to take unconventional paths to establish and preserve their family units. The Act has not altered or infringed upon the rights that were already in existence relative to adoption. People in Rhode Island looking to adopt children as a means of building their families can pursue adoption of a child in the custody of the State through the Department of Children, Youth and Families (“DCYF”) or a private adoption of a baby or child through a licensed agency. (R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-7).

Conclusion

There are a lot of options available to people looking to start or expand their families. Whatever path you choose, it is important to make sure you are taking the correct legal steps to keep your family intact and secure

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