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I acknowledge receipt of your Letter of July 11th which is as follows:
"Re: Lillian Waite.
This girl is 16 years of age. Her own mother is dead, her
father is living but his whereabouts are unknown to us. Mr. Samuel Waite and his wife, Anna
Waite, who legally adopted her June 26, 1924 according to records of Probate Court, District of
Fair Haven, have requested her sterilization. There is no record of appointment of a guardian. Do
their signatures constitute an adequate legal request for her sterilization under Chapter 225,
General Laws, provided the other requirements of this Section are met?
Thanking you
for your opinion in this matter, I am….."
The question submitted should be answered in the affirmative, as the general effect of adoption under our statutes is to create as fully as may be the relation of parent and child between foster parent and adopted child.
Upon the proper execution and filing of the instrument of adoption, provided by Chapter 144 of the Public Laws, the same rights, duties and obligations shall exist between the parties as though the person adopted had been the legitimate child of the person or persons making the adoption, and the natural parents of such minor shall be deprived, by the adoption, of all legal right to the control of such minor, and he shall be freed from all obligations of obedience and maintenance to them. Section 3336 of the Public Laws.
It is my opinion that the persons making the adoption, that is the foster father and mother, are joint guardians of such adopted child, within the meaning and intent of Section 3201 of the Public Laws.