By Kim Rahn
A top court has rejected an appeal from a couple who applied to register their granddaughter as their adopted daughter, saying the child’s welfare comes before the happiness of the couple’s daughter, the girl’s mother, who is looking to remarry.
The Supreme Court said Sunday that it turned down the appeal filed by the couple in their 50s, whose application to adopt their five-year-old granddaughter as their own daughter had been rejected by a lower court.
The couple has taken care of the granddaughter since 2006 when their daughter gave birth to her and broke up with the girl’s father. They filed the application, claiming it is better for their daughter to have no registered child when getting remarried and it is better for the girl to have the grandparents as adoptive parents rather than being adopted by another family.
“The most important thing in adopting a child is whether it is best for the child’s welfare. Also it should be considered whether the motive of the adoption is proper, whether the child really needs to be adopted, and what influence the adoption will have on the family relationship,” the court said.
“The girl’s birthmother is alive. If the couple registers the girl as their own daughter, her grandparents will become her parents and her mother will become her sister. It will cause great confusion in the kinship,” it said.
The court said that the main motive of the application is to facilitate the daughter’s remarriage, saying the adoption is only a means to enhance the birthmother’s future welfare. “The couple currently raises the child without specific restrictions, so they don’t necessarily have to adopt the girl,” it said.
A local court previously rejected the application, and the appellate court also turned down the appeal.
“There have been numerous applications to register grandchildren as their own children, and lower courts have had different verdicts. The top court’s decision has presented the criterion for adoption,” a Supreme Court official said.