Stepchild Adoption Bio Parent Not Around

I'm not an expert, but I did find some info you might find useful. "Unlike a husband or legal father, however, an unwed biological father’s right to receive notice does not mean that his consent is required in order for the adoption to proceed. A man who fathers a child out of wedlock must take affirmative steps to show his commitment to establishing a parent-child relationship before the law recognizes his right to prevent an adoption by withholding his consent.After he is served with notice of adoption proceedings, a father will have to assert a claim of paternity within a certain timeframe. If he fails to respond, the court will most likely enter an order that his consent is not required for adoption. If he does respond, his consent may still not be needed — but this is on a case-by-case basis dependent upon your own situation. An attorney working with a woman in an adoption situation will need a lot of information about what the biological father has done since she became pregnant."

It depends on the state, and I'm not a legal professional, but I highly doubt it will be an issue at all to adopt your step child. If he has never been present and it's been fifteen years, on top of conception being from a crime, I don't see any issues. I'm in Utah and I placed a baby who was conceived from a sex crime 3 days after birth without the consent of the biological father and her adoptive parents didn't have any problem finalizing the adoption

Thank you so much for the information.We are talking with local attorneys currently to see our best options.

The Mutual Consent Rules usually only apply to infant adoptions (that's what is outlined above)Your wife's story sounds almost exactly like mine. Basically, when my ex-husband adopted my son, I had to either get consent by service or consent by publication. What that means is, if Mom knows where the Non-Custodial Parent is, you'll start with the Consent by Service. If he is served and then doesn't respond or if he can't be served, due to not knowing his location, he can then have his rights terminated by Consent by Publication. I do need to ask a personal but important question:Is NCP on the birth certificate currently?Did mom report the crime to the local authorities?In the end, the father will have to be notified (or an attempt at notification must be done) in one, two or both ways outlined above.Then again, you might have an attorney who wants to try it using the Mutual Consent Registry -- but usually, MCR states have the law in order to terminate the absent father so that an infant adoption can go forward.I will say, a LOT of people (including judges and attorneys) have no idea what the MCR is or how it works, which is why I said your attorney may try to go that route. Obviously it would be much less expensive to get consent, willingly. Doing it the other way will mean that you have to show grounds and then you'd have to factor in Billable Hours for your attorney to now only prepare the case, but go before a judge and argue it. A consent given willingly significantly reduces the cost of the process.