Why Can't We Adopt Adults In South Africa?
According to the Children's Act 38 of 2005, a child is considered someone under the age of 18 years and when it comes to the adoption process, anyone older then 18 cannot be adopted.
So my question is, how does anyone go about making an adult stepchild your "child" legally?
A name change does not make it legal, so that seems out of the question.
Marriage is adoption for adults.
Edit : Oh I see you said adopting a stepchild.
Why on earth would one like to do that. Children need protection and care. For a grown-up, 'adoption' can be seen as a insult. No man should rule over the life of another man. As simple as that. Slavery anyone?
He probably means if you marry an older woman who already has a child of over 18.
Anyway, kids gain legal independence from their parents when they turn 18. Someone who then marries that person's parent can't get legal control of the person because not even the parent has it anymore.
Last edited by Picard; 05-08-2012 at 12:09 AM.
Originally Posted by Nicodeamus
This.
I'm thinking you can't because it's pointless and stupid?
oh yes, now I can see what all the fuss is about.
Yes I'm sure it will be deemed slavery if 2 consenting adults agree to it.
I guess hiring a gardener and a maid to clean a house is slavery too.
There must be a point in a families life where you would need to make a stepchild officially yours for a specific reason and not being able to "adopt" them over the age of 18 must be discriminatory.
Is it really necessary to adopt someone? You can provide financially and love and caring is not enhanced by the act of adoption.
If music be the food of love, play on
It is not necessary to adopt someone but there will be times that it is necessary I am sure and not allowing someone to do it can't be right.
This reminded me of this case in America
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1375810.html
A rich polo club founder who legally adopted his girlfriend has been convicted of killing an engineering student in a drunk driving crash.
John Goodman of Wellington, Fla., was taken into custody after the jury of five men and one woman announced the guilty verdict on Friday afternoon, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Jurors deliberated for more than five hours on charges that Goodman, 48, was drunk when he ran a stop sign and crashed his Bentley into a Hyundai, killing the driver Scott Wilson in February 2010. Wilson's car flipped and fell into a canal, drowning him.
Goodman could be sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The case took on national interest when it was revealed that Goodman -- the International Polo Club Palm Beach founder -- had quietly adopted his girlfriend, making her eligible for a share of the $300 million trust he'd established for his biological children.
Critics charged that Goodman, 48, had exploited a loophole in order to protect some of his immense wealth from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Wilson's family. Goodman settled with the Wilson family for an unspecified amount earlier this month, shortly before the criminal trial began, according to WPTV.
A guardian for his teenage children fought back by filing a lawsuit to get the eyebrow-raising adoption nullified.
The weak shall inherit nothing
Like what times?
"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." FM Arouet
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience" Unknown
If I was dying and wanted leave something to my family and I have a wife and a daughter and stepdaughters and I don't want any nonsense from my other family regarding my will, why can'y I adopt my stepdaughters to make them legally mine?
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