Legal Definitions - birth parent

A birth parent refers to the biological mother or father of a child. This term is primarily used in legal contexts, especially those involving adoption or assisted reproduction, to distinguish the individual who is biologically related to the child from an adoptive parent or an intended parent who assumes legal parental rights and responsibilities.

Here are some examples to illustrate the concept of a birth parent:

• Example 1: Adoption Proceedings

  A couple decides to adopt a newborn baby. The woman who carried the pregnancy and gave birth to the child, along with the biological father, are referred to as the child's birth parents. Once the adoption is finalized, the adoptive couple becomes the child's legal parents, while the biological parents retain the designation of birth parents, acknowledging their biological connection.

  This example illustrates how "birth parent" distinguishes the biological origin of a child from the legal parental relationship established through adoption.

• Example 2: Surrogacy Arrangement

  A woman agrees to be a gestational surrogate for a same-sex couple, carrying a pregnancy using an embryo created from the couple's genetic material. After the child is born, the surrogate mother is the birth mother, having carried and delivered the baby. However, the same-sex couple are the intended legal parents and the genetic parents.

  This example demonstrates that while the surrogate is the birth mother (the one who gave birth), the term "birth parent" can also encompass the genetic parents, highlighting the biological connection even when the person giving birth is not the genetic parent or the legal parent.

• Example 3: Parental Rights Termination

  In a situation where a child is removed from their biological parents due to severe neglect, and a court subsequently terminates the parental rights of those individuals, they are still referred to as the child's birth parents. Even though they no longer hold legal parental status or responsibilities, their biological relationship to the child remains a factual and historical aspect of the child's identity.

  This example clarifies that "birth parent" describes an immutable biological relationship, which persists regardless of changes in legal parental status or the termination of parental rights.