We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 November 2017
While the previous chapters have discussed the mechanisms by which parents may give their consent to adoption, and the safeguards necessary to preserve the child's rights in this respect, this section will examine the circumstances in which parental consent can be overridden or dispensed with.
Nearly every country in Europe has a mechanism for dispensing with the need for parental consent or overriding a refusal to give consent in certain circumstances, with the sole exception of Italy, where the consent of parents is not needed for adoption in the first place. This is an extremely important area, particularly as it relates to parental “abandonment”, which is a common way in which many children pass into intercountry adoption. In addition, conditions for dispensing with consent display the potential conflict or confluence between parental rights and children's rights, manifesting the weight that authorities give to family autonomy and protection from state interference. On the other hand, it is a testing ground for tensions between different aspects of the child's rights in the adoption process, challenging the state to find the appropriate balance between maintaining family ties and ensuring a safe and stable environment for the child.
As discussed previously, the Hague Convention and UNCRC leave many issues regarding consent to the discretion of member states, giving little guidance as to who must give consent, and none at all concerning when this can be dispensed with, or on what grounds. Article 5(3) of the Revised European Convention on the Adoption of Children of 2008 provides somewhat more content to this area, requiring that consent only be overruled or dispensed with on “exceptional grounds”. No guidance is given as to what may constitute “exceptional grounds”, however, or the rights and interests to be taken into account when deciding these. As a result, it is not surprising that the mechanisms for dispensing with or overriding parental refusal to consent to adoption differ greatly between European states.
LOSS OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AND PARENTAL MISCONDUCT
The most common way in which consent is dispensed with is where the parents have been deprived of parental rights.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
