The Parent-Child Relationship – A Digestible Overview

The Parent-Child Relationship – A Digestible Overview – How the state of Texas determines who is a legal part of the parent-child relationship carries great legal significance since the relationship can create parental rights and duties, support obligations, inheritance rights, and rights of possession and access.

In 2001, Texas became the first state to adopt provisions of the 2000 version of the Uniform Parentage Act, which governs any and all issues involving the creation of the parent-child relationship, including maternity and paternity determinations. Essentially, the UPA was created as a uniform law so all states could deal equally with the issues that arise in relation to the parent-child relationship.

Rather than hit you with a ton of information all at once, this blog focuses on the ways the parent-child relationship can be established. I will do subsequent blogs on anything that needs to be explained in greater detail.

A mother-child relationship is established in any of the following ways:

1. The woman gives birth to the child.
2. The woman legally adopts the child.
3. The woman is ruled by the court to be the mother of the child (rarely-needed process).
4. The woman is ruled by the court to be the mother of the child born to another woman under a gestational agreement (unlike a surrogate, a gestational mother has no genetic connection to the child).

A father-child relationship is established in any of the following ways:

1. An unrebutted (not argued) presumption that the man is the father of the child.
2. The man acknowledges he is the father of the child.
3. The man legally adopts the child.
4. The man is ruled by the court to be the father of the child.
5. The man agrees to have a surrogate/gestational mother, resulting in the birth of the child.
6. The man is unmarried but intends to be a father. He provides sperm to a licensed doctor and agrees to have assisted reproduction by an unmarried woman, resulting in the birth of the child.
7. The man is ruled by court to be the father of a child born to another woman under gestational agreement.

Obviously, your parents are always going to be your parents, but legally the parent-child relationship lasts until the parent or child dies, the child turns 18, the child gets married, the child successfully petitions for the removal of the disabilities of minority or the relationship is legally terminated.

If you have questions regarding this blog, please call one of our team members at Nelson Law Group, PC.