What options does an individual have if they want to pursue legal action against their biological parents for abandonment?

Question

Mary was abandoned by her biological parents when she was two months old. As an adult, she discovers that her adoptive parents are not her biological parents and wishes to take legal action against her real parents for abandonment. However, she lacks a DNA test or any other evidence to establish her true identity in court. What options does she have to pursue her case?

Answer 1

united-states

There is no legal right to be raised by your own biological parents. Mary's "real parents," in the eyes of the law, are her adopted parents.

Parents who surrender a child for adoption, or simply abandon that child, cannot be sued by that child for that reason alone. Generally, state law (which controls) specifically authorizes parents to do so without civil liability, and in most cases (i.e. barring criminal child abuse or neglect), without criminal liability. The statute of limitations for criminal liability would have run long ago in any case.

This is done to encourage parents who can't handle being parents to promptly give up a child for adoption, rather than creating a legal incentive for the parents to continue to keep a child in a bad situation.

Answer 2

germany Mary can't sue.

The people who happen to share Mary's genetic code are, legally speaking unrelated and strangers to Mary, as Mary was adopted, but for incest laws. That is the case because an adoption extinguishes all legal rights in both directions, but the ban on incest is about genetic relatedness.

By giving up Mary for adoption, the former parents become fully unrelated strangers. As a result, Mary can not sue them for child support, and she is not automatically their inheritor. And there is no wrong that she can sue for either.

But... Crimes?

Assuming that Mary's genetic parents did commit some crimes against her before giving her up for adoption, those would be prosecuted by the state. In general, the german system also favors much fewer cases: In praxis that in case of a crime, almost always the civil claims are tacked on to the criminal case as a so-called "Adhäsionsverfahten" - the judgment will include the criminal and civil punishments. This also bars any subsequent civil suit for damages.

In the rare case that Mary's civil claim was not adjudicated together with the crime, bringing the case as an adult would generally be time-barred, as the criminal case also made Mary (or her legal guardian) aware of the crime and damage, and they would have had at maximum 3 years to bring their claims.

Answer 3

canada

There is no cause of action for "abandonment" in the sense described in the question.

One would need to fit the wrong into a standard tort or extra-contractual civil liability (Quebec). The facts as presented are insufficient to establish any tort or extra-contractual wrong that I can imagine.

More or different facts might establish a tort.

Answer 4

australia

Adoption

Adoption severs all legal ties between the child and living biological parents - those people, therefore, have no legal relationship with the child. An adoption that occurs after the birth parent's death does not destroy the legal relationship.

So, for an adopted child of living parents, there is no duty of care arising solely from being a biological parent.

Other arrangements

There are many circumstances where a child may grow up being cared for by people who are not their parents without formal adoption. Indeed, this is by far the more common circumstance.

In those cases (as well as the adoption of a deceased person's child), the biological parents are still the parents and have legal duties towards the child. However, these duties are owed to the State, not the child - breaching them is an offence, but it does not give the child a cause of action through negligence or similar torts.

Australian courts have been vehemently opposed to universally recognising the existence of a parental duty of care.

So, while some relationships automatically create a duty of care (e.g. doctor/patient, driver/road user), the parent/child relationship does not. That's not to say there couldn't be a duty of care in particular circumstances just as there could be between any two unrelated people.

With respect to abandonment, if this was done in a way that was not negligent (e.g. leaving the child in the care of a competent person), there is cause of action.