What is the effect of adoption on the birth parents' rights and obligations?

• A. Birth parents' rights and obligations are severed
• B. Birth parents retain parental rights but not obligations
• C. Birth parents have no change in rights
• D. Birth parents gain new obligations

Answer: (A)

Adoption ends the legal relationship between the child and the birth parents. When parental rights are terminated, the birth parents lose custody, the authority to make decisions about the child’s upbringing, and all duties of support toward the child. The child then becomes the legal child of the adoptive parents, who take on all parental rights and obligations. Open adoptions may allow ongoing contact, but that does not restore parental rights or duties. So the effect is that the birth parents’ rights and obligations are severed.