Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

To Grandmother's House We Go: Grandparent Visitation after Stepparent Adoption

1985; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

1556-5068

Peter A. Zablotsky,

Reproductive Health and Technologies

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, legislatures, courts, and commentators were coming to terms with the question of grandparent visitation rights. Although there was a partial consensus among authorities on the issue of grandparent visitation rights generally, such agreement was absent on the issue of grandparent visitation rights after stepparent adoption. Two divergent views developed. Some states terminated grandparent visitation upon stepparent adoption. Others, reasoning that grandparent visitation and stepparent adoption are not necessarily incompatible, allowed decisions regarding grandparent visitation after stepparent adoption to be made on a case by case basis. This Article proposes that the best interest of the child is the only relevant and useful standard in analyzing grandparent visitation rights after stepparent adoption and that this consideration mandates that grandparent visitation rights not be automatically terminated upon stepparent adoption. The Article begins with a fifty-state survey of the then-current law on grandparent visitation rights. It next outlines and critiques the analytical framework that has been employed in a largely unsuccessful attempt to resolve clearly the issue of grandparent visitation after stepparent adoption. Finally, the Article examines the relevant policy considerations, including a review of the sociological data regarding the effect of continued contact between grandparents and grandchildren.