Adoption & Assisted Reproduction

Families are built in more ways than ever, through adoption, donor conception, surrogacy, and blended households. The law's job is to make the family you are building legally secure, everywhere and permanently. The Law Office of Chad Foster handles adoption and assisted reproduction matters for families throughout King and Snohomish Counties.

Adoption in Washington

Adoption is governed by Chapter 26.33 RCW. Any legally competent adult may petition to adopt, and an adoption decree makes the adopted child the legal child of the adoptive parent for all purposes, including inheritance, while permanently ending the legal relationship with a former parent whose rights are terminated.

The pieces of a typical adoption include consent from the legal parents (or termination of parental rights where consent is refused or the parent cannot be found), a preplacement report, commonly called a home study, by a qualified investigator, and a finalization hearing. Stepparent and relative adoptions, the most common cases we handle, are often streamlined: courts can tailor the investigation requirements, and the child usually already lives in the home.

We handle:

  • Stepparent adoptions
  • Relative (kinship) adoptions, including grandparent adoptions
  • Second-parent and confirmatory adoptions
  • Adult adoptions
  • Consent, notice, and termination issues within adoption cases

Assisted Reproduction

Children conceived through assisted reproduction are covered by Washington's Uniform Parentage Act (Chapter 26.26A RCW), which is among the more modern parentage statutes in the country. Its core rules:

  • Intent makes the parent. A person who consents to assisted reproduction with the intent to be a parent of the resulting child is a legal parent (RCW 26.26A.605–.615).
  • Donors are not parents. A gamete donor, as such, is not a parent of a child conceived through assisted reproduction.
  • Surrogacy is lawful and regulated. Washington authorizes both genetic and gestational surrogacy agreements, including compensated agreements, with statutory safeguards (RCW 26.26A.700 and following): the parties must meet eligibility requirements, including age, prior birth for the surrogate, and medical and mental health consultations, each side must have independent legal counsel, and the agreement must be in writing and executed before any medical procedure begins. Done correctly, intended parents can obtain orders establishing their parentage.

Why Secure Parentage Even When the Law Is on Your Side

For many families, particularly LGBTQ+ parents and families using known donors, we recommend a confirmatory adoption or court parentage order even where Washington's statute already makes both parents legal parents. A court judgment is entitled to recognition in every state in a way a statute is not, and it removes any argument later: at a hospital, at a border, in an inheritance dispute, or after a separation. It is the legal equivalent of a belt and suspenders, and it is worth it.

Adoption and ART also have estate planning consequences: new children mean updated wills, trusts, guardian nominations, and beneficiary designations.

What the Process Looks Like

For a typical stepparent or relative adoption: we confirm who must consent and obtain those consents (or litigate termination where required), arrange the preplacement report if one is needed, file the petition in superior court, and finish with a finalization hearing, usually a short, genuinely happy court appearance where the judge signs the decree and the family takes photos. For assisted reproduction matters, the sequence runs the other direction: agreements and counsel come first, before any medical procedure, and the parentage order or confirmatory adoption follows the birth. In both worlds, doing the paperwork in the right order is most of the battle.

Common Questions

Does a stepparent adoption require the other biological parent's consent?

Generally yes, or termination of that parent's rights, which a court will order only on statutory grounds. Where the other parent consents, stepparent adoptions are usually smooth; where they contest, the case becomes a termination proceeding with a high legal bar, and you need counsel.

Do we need an agreement for a known donor?

Emphatically yes. The statute protects intended parents, but a written agreement executed before conception, clarifying that the donor is a donor and not a parent, prevents the painful disputes that arise when expectations were never written down. See also our parentage page for how these rules interact.

Can single adults adopt or use surrogacy in Washington?

Yes. Washington law does not restrict adoption or assisted reproduction to married couples; single parents and unmarried couples regularly build families through both.

Get Started

Whatever shape your family is taking, contact the Law Office of Chad Foster to make it legally secure.

Call us at 425.785.8679 or email help@ChadAtLaw.com.