What is an illegal adoption ?
An adoption legally formalised by a Court of Law, accords to the Adopted child inheritence and other status equivalent to that of a biological child. The formalisation of an adoption involves the issuance of a birth certificate in favour of the child where the adoptive parents are declared as the parents of the child. Once this is done, the child had all the rights as a biological child. Also, the biological parents cannot at a future date claim the child as their own. Illegal adoptions are those where the legal process has not been followed. Sometimes (commonly, in India), a destitute child just enters the family fold and is brought up by the parents as their own. Likewise, adoptive parents sometimes obtain children clandestinely, through private hospitals/ other sources, and do not complete the legal process. Such children do not automatically have the rights of a biological child and the biological parents can claim rights to the child if they so, desire.
