A legal parent is a person who is legally recognized as a child’s parent and has the legal right
to have custody of a child and make decisions about the child’s health, education, and
well-being. A legal parent is also financially obligated to support the child. In a number of
states, a person who is not a legal parent does not have any legal decision-making authority
over a child, even if that person lives with the child and functions as the child’s parent. For
example, in some states, a person who is not a legal parent may not be able to consent to
medical care for the child or even have the authority to approve things like school field trips.
In addition, a non-legal parent may have no rights to custody or even visitation with a child
should something happen to the legal parent, and may have no ability to claim the child as a
dependent for health insurance. In the absence of a will stating otherwise, a child generally
has no right to inherit from a person who is not a legal parent or relative.
The breakdown of a relationship is an emotional and stressful time that can be made even
more difficult if you are considering what arrangements need to be made for your children in
the future. Having parental responsibility means you have rights and duties to look after your
children. You can have parental responsibility even if you are not the children’s biological
parents. Parental responsibility is extremely important for civil partnership dissolution also
because it gives you the right to contribute towards your children’s upbringing, even if they
do not live with you after the dissolution is finalized.
There are several ways to acquire parental responsibility as civil partners. In some situations
establishing it is easy, for example, if you gave birth to the children. In other situations, it is
unfortunately not so clear-cut. Assessing who has parental responsibility in a civil partnership
depends on a number of factors, such as whether the child was conceived via artificial
insemination, adopted, or conceived via surrogacy. The woman who gives birth to the child
will automatically have parental responsibility. She does not need to be the child’s biological
mother, so if she got pregnant via a donated egg and artificial insemination or she is a
surrogate for a same-sex couple, she will still have parental responsibility. In female
same-sex couples, the woman who gives birth to the child will have automatic parental
responsibility. In most circumstances, their civil partner will also automatically have parental
responsibility. Even same-sex partners who were adopted while they were in a civil partnership
will both have parental responsibility. Only once the Adoption Order is made will parental
responsibility be transferred from the legal parents to the adoptive parents. Civil partners do
not automatically get parental responsibility for a child conceived via a third-party surrogate,
even if they entered into a surrogacy agreement (an agreement for a woman to carry a child
on a couple’s behalf). The civil partners must obtain a Parental Order or adopt the child to
become their legal parents and obtain parental responsibility. There are other situations that
could mean that an individual does not automatically have parental responsibility. This is
typically due to them not being in a civil partnership with the child’s parent when they were
born. However, civil partners can acquire parental responsibility later on, for example, by
making a parental responsibility agreement with the parent after entering into the civil
partnership.