NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1967 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 442

SENATE BILL 279

 

 

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE STATE REGISTRAR OF THE OFFICE OF VITAL STATISTICS TO PREPARE A NEW BIRTH CERTIFICATE FOR AN ADOPTED CHILD WHICH SHALL CONTAIN THE FULL NAME, AGE, (AT TIME OF CHILD'S BIRTH), RACE AND BIRTHPLACE OF THE DECEASED HUSBAND OF THE ADOPTIVE MOTHER OF SAID CHILD.

 

WHEREAS, two residents (husband and wife), of Guilford County, North Carolina, pursuant to the terms of a written placement agreement entered into with the Childrens Home Society of North Carolina, Inc., received into their home, in 1964, an infant child, a ward of the said Childrens Home Society of North Carolina, Inc., with the intention of adopting said child; and

WHEREAS, the said child thereafter resided continuously in the home of the said proposed adoptive parents and was treated in all respects as if it were their own child and was given the care and affection of parents; and

WHEREAS, prior to the filing of a Petition for Adoption of said child, the proposed adoptive father died unexpectedly as the result of a heart attack in January of 1965; and

WHEREAS, the surviving spouse of the proposed adoptive father, by and with the consent of the Childrens Home Society of North Carolina, Inc., on the 2nd day of March, 1965, instituted adoption proceedings in the Superior Court of Guilford County, North Carolina, and in said proceeding requested a change in the name of said child so as to give to said child the surname of the deceased proposed adoptive father; and

WHEREAS, a final order for adoption was entered in the said Superior Court on the 25th day of May, 1965, establishing the relationship of parent and child between said child and the aforesaid surviving spouse (mother) and further providing that the child's name should thereafter be as requested in the Petition for Adoption, and ordering the State Registrar of Vital Statistics to issue a new birth certificate for said child in accordance with the provisions of Section 48-29 of the General Statutes of North Carolina; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the provisions of Section 48-29 of the said General Statutes the State Registrar did issue a new Certificate of Live Birth for said child, which certificate is recorded in Volume 64, Page 030766, Office of Vital Statistics, Raleigh, North Carolina; and

WHEREAS, the aforesaid new Certificate of Live Birth for said child does not show thereon the name, age, (at time of child's birth), race or birthplace of the deceased proposed adoptive father of said child, and the Attorney General of the State of North Carolina has rendered an opinion that where a proposed adoptive father dies before an interlocutory decree is entered in an adoption proceeding, the Office of Vital Statistics is without authority to show the name of the said deceased proposed adoptive father on the new birth certificate, notwithstanding that the surviving spouse of the proposed adoptive parents becomes the adoptive parent of the child; and

WHEREAS, the adoptive parent (mother) of said child desires to have shown on the new Certificate of Live Birth of said child the name, age, (at time of child's birth), race and birthplace of her deceased husband as the adoptive father of said child in order that full parentage may be shown on the child's birth certificate: Now, therefore,

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  That the State Registrar of the Office of Vital Statistics is hereby empowered and directed to amend the Certificate of Live Birth recorded in Volume 64, Page 030766, Office of Vital Statistics, Raleigh, N.C. which amended birth certificate shall contain, in addition to the information already shown thereon, under the heading "father" on said certificate, the name, age, (at time of child's birth), race and birthplace of the deceased spouse of the adoptive parent (mother) of said child. This Section shall not be construed to entitle the child named in said birth certificate to inherit real and personal property by, through, and from the individual named as father on said amended birth certificate.

Sec. 2.  This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after it is ratified.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 16th day of May, 1967.