Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 1998)
Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 1998)
Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 1998)
Order of the President [1998] No.10
November 4, 1991
Adopted at the 23rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress and promulgated by Order of the President [1998] No.10 on December 29, 1991, and amended in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 5th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on November 4, 1998.
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Establishment of an Adoptive Relationship
Chapter III Validity of Adoption
Chapter IV Termination of an Adoptive Relationship
Chapter V Legal Responsibility
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 This Law is enacted to protect the lawful adoptive relationship and to safeguard the rights of parties involved in the adoptive relationship.
Article 2 Adoption shall be in the interest of the upbringing and growth of adopted minors, with the lawful rights and interests of both adoptees and adopters safeguarded, in adherence to the principles of equality and voluntariness, and not in contravention of social morality.
Article 3 Adoption shall not contravene laws and regulations on family planning.
Chapter II Establishment of an Adoptive Relationship
Article 4 Minors under the age of 14, as enumerated below, may be adopted:
1. orphans bereaved of parents;
2. abandoned infants or children whose parents cannot be ascertained or found; and
3. children whose parents are unable to rear them due to unusual difficulties.
Article 5 The following citizens or institutions shall be entitled to place out children for adoption:
1. guardians of an orphan;
2. social welfare institutions; and
3. parents unable to rear their children due to unusual difficulties.
Article 6 Adopters shall meet simultaneously the following requirements:
1. childless;
2. capable of rearing and educating the adoptee;
3. suffering no such disease as is medically regarded as unfit for adopting a child; and
4. having reached the age of 30.
Article 7 A person may adopt a child belonging to a collateral relative by blood of the same generation and up to the third degree of kinship, irrespective of the restrictions specified in sub-paragraph (3) of Article 4; sub-paragraph (3) of Article 5 and Article 9 of this Law as well as the restriction that the adoptee shall be under the age of 14.
An overseas Chinese, in adopting a child belonging to a collateral relative by blood of the same generation and up to the third degree of kinship, may even be not subject to the adopter's childless status.
Article 8 The adopter may adopt one child only, male or female.
Orphans, disabled children, or abandoned infants and children whose parents cannot be ascertained or found and who are under the care of a social welfare institution may be adopted irrespective of the restrictions that the adopter shall be childless and that he or she may adopt one child only.
Article 9 Where a male person without spouse adopts a female child, the age difference between the adopter and the adoptee shall be no less than 40 years.
Article 10 Where the parents intend to place out their child for adoption, they shall act in concert.
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Order of the President [1998] No.10
November 4, 1991
Adopted at the 23rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress and promulgated by Order of the President [1998] No.10 on December 29, 1991, and amended in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 5th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on November 4, 1998.
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Establishment of an Adoptive Relationship
Chapter III Validity of Adoption
Chapter IV Termination of an Adoptive Relationship
Chapter V Legal Responsibility
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 This Law is enacted to protect the lawful adoptive relationship and to safeguard the rights of parties involved in the adoptive relationship.
Article 2 Adoption shall be in the interest of the upbringing and growth of adopted minors, with the lawful rights and interests of both adoptees and adopters safeguarded, in adherence to the principles of equality and voluntariness, and not in contravention of social morality.
Article 3 Adoption shall not contravene laws and regulations on family planning.
Chapter II Establishment of an Adoptive Relationship
Article 4 Minors under the age of 14, as enumerated below, may be adopted:
1. orphans bereaved of parents;
2. abandoned infants or children whose parents cannot be ascertained or found; and
3. children whose parents are unable to rear them due to unusual difficulties.
Article 5 The following citizens or institutions shall be entitled to place out children for adoption:
1. guardians of an orphan;
2. social welfare institutions; and
3. parents unable to rear their children due to unusual difficulties.
Article 6 Adopters shall meet simultaneously the following requirements:
1. childless;
2. capable of rearing and educating the adoptee;
3. suffering no such disease as is medically regarded as unfit for adopting a child; and
4. having reached the age of 30.
Article 7 A person may adopt a child belonging to a collateral relative by blood of the same generation and up to the third degree of kinship, irrespective of the restrictions specified in sub-paragraph (3) of Article 4; sub-paragraph (3) of Article 5 and Article 9 of this Law as well as the restriction that the adoptee shall be under the age of 14.
An overseas Chinese, in adopting a child belonging to a collateral relative by blood of the same generation and up to the third degree of kinship, may even be not subject to the adopter's childless status.
Article 8 The adopter may adopt one child only, male or female.
Orphans, disabled children, or abandoned infants and children whose parents cannot be ascertained or found and who are under the care of a social welfare institution may be adopted irrespective of the restrictions that the adopter shall be childless and that he or she may adopt one child only.
Article 9 Where a male person without spouse adopts a female child, the age difference between the adopter and the adoptee shall be no less than 40 years.
Article 10 Where the parents intend to place out their child for adoption, they shall act in concert.
......