South Carolina Code 63-9-320. Persons not required to give consent or relinquishment
(1) a parent whose rights with reference to the adoptee have been terminated pursuant to Article 7, Chapter 7;
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 63-9-320
- Adoptee: means a person who is proposed to be or who has been legally adopted. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
- Adoption: means the judicial act of creating the relationship of parent and child where it did not exist previously. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
- agency: means the State Department of Social Services and any person or entity who holds legal or physical custody of a child for the purpose of placement for adoption or a person or entity who facilitates the placement of children for the purpose of adoption. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
- Child: means any person under eighteen years of age. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
- Consent: means the informed and voluntary release in writing of all parental rights with respect to a child by a parent for the purpose of adoption, or the informed and voluntary release in writing of all custodial or guardianship rights, or both, with respect to a child by the child placing agency or person facilitating the placement of the child for adoption where the child's parent previously has executed a relinquishment to that agency or person. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Court: means any family court in this State. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Parent: means biological parent, adoptive parents, step-parent, or person with legal custody. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
- Relinquishment: means the informed and voluntary release in writing of all parental rights with respect to a child by a parent to a child placing agency or to a person who facilitates the placement of a child for the purpose of adoption and to whom the parent has given the right to consent to the adoption of the child. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
(2) a parent whom the family court finds to be mentally incapable of giving consent or relinquishment for the purpose of adoption and whom the court finds to be unlikely to provide minimally acceptable care of the adoptee and whose capacity is unlikely to be restored for a reasonable period of time, and, in the court’s judgment, it would be detrimental to the adoptee to delay adoption. The court shall appoint a guardian ad litem for an incompetent parent for whom there has been no prior appointment and shall appoint independent counsel for an incompetent parent who is indigent. However, upon good cause shown, the court may waive the requirement for the appointment of independent counsel for an incompetent and indigent parent;
(3) the biological parent of a child conceived as a result of that parent’s criminal sexual conduct or incest as found by a court of competent jurisdiction unless, with respect to a conviction for criminal sexual conduct, the sentencing court makes specific findings on the record that the conviction resulted from consensual sexual conduct where neither the victim nor the actor were younger than fourteen years of age nor older than eighteen years of age at the time of the offense.
(B) A parent who has executed a relinquishment pursuant to § 63-9-330 to a person facilitating the adoption or to a child placing agency for the purpose of adoption of his child is not required to execute a separate consent document also.