On my post, Insecurities about Adopted Child's Relationship with Birthparents, a birthfather left a very sad comment about his own situation. He posted that he has a thirteen-year-old birthdaughter that he just found out about this summer. I cannot even imagine the shock that this man must have gone through, first knowing that he had a child and then that "strangers" were raising that child without him ever relinquishing his parental rights or agreeing to an adoption. However, this late in the child's life, it would be devastating to the child to be removed from her adoptive home to be placed with her biological father.

According to this man's comment, the laws in the child's birth state of Indiana do not require the birthfather to be notified about the adoption if he was unaware of the pregnancy. I did some on-line research to verify the accuracy of this statement, and I found verification in the article Indiana's Putative Father Registry Succeeds.

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A putative father is a biological father who has neither married the expecting mother nor established paternity of the child. In order to be legally entitled to receive notice of an adoption, he must register with the state either while the expecting mother is pregnant or within a certain period of time after the baby is born. If he registers in a timely manner, then he gets notice and has an opportunity to contest the adoption. If he does not register, then his right to notice is waived, and his consent to the adoption is implied.

The upside to putative father registries is that the adoption can move forward without fear of disruption years later when the biological father seeks to parent the child. It also protects the birthmother from having her name published in the newspaper for a public notice. However, the downside is shown by this man's comment. If the birthmother never tells the biological father about her pregnancy, how can he know that he even needs to put his name on the registry?

From a legal standpoint, I support putative father registries because a child cannot stay in limbo. He needs a home, whether that home is with his biological father or with an adoptive family. However, from a moral standpoint, I do believe that biological fathers need to be notified of the existence of their biological children so they have the opportunity to choose to parent.

Photo Credit: Lynda Bernhardt