7.—(1) Upon an adoption order being made —| (a) | all rights, duties, obligations and liabilities of the parent or parents, guardian or guardians of the adopted child, in relation to the future custody, maintenance and education of the adopted child, including all rights to appoint a guardian or to consent or give notice of dissent to marriage shall be extinguished; | | (b) | all such rights, duties, obligations and liabilities shall vest in and be exercisable by and enforceable against the adopter as though the adopted child was a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock; and | | (c) | in respect of the same matters and in respect of the liability of a child to maintain its parents, the adopted child shall stand to the adopter exclusively in the position of a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock, |
| except that in any case where 2 spouses are the adopters, such spouses shall, in respect of the matters in paragraphs (a) to (c) and for the purpose of the jurisdiction of any court to make orders as to the custody and maintenance of and right of access to children, stand to each other and to the adopted child in the same relation as they would have stood if they had been the lawful father and mother of the adopted child, and the adopted child shall stand to them respectively in the same relation as a child would have stood to a lawful father and mother respectively. |
(2) Where, at any time after the making of an adoption order —| (a) | the adopter or the adopted person or any other person dies intestate in respect of any movable or immovable property, that property shall devolve in all respects as if the adopted person were the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and not the child of any other person; | | (b) | in any disposition of movable or immovable property made, whether by instrument inter vivos or by will (including codicil) after the date of an adoption order —| (i) | any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopter shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as, or as including, a reference to the adopted person; | | (ii) | any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopted person’s natural parents or either of them shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as not being, or as not including, a reference to the adopted person; and | | (iii) | any reference (whether express or implied) to a person related to the adopted person in any degree shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as a reference to the person who would be related to him in that degree if he were the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and were not the child of any other person. |
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| (3) Where an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child takes any interest in movable or immovable property under a disposition by the adopter or under any intestacy, or where an adopter takes any interest in movable or immovable property under a disposition by an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child, or under the intestacy of an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child, any estate or other duty which becomes leviable in respect thereof shall be payable at the same rate as if the adopted child had been a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock. |
| (4) For the purposes of this section, “disposition” means an assurance of any interest in property by any instrument whether inter vivos or by will including codicil. |
| (5) For the purposes of section 20 or 21 of the Civil Law Act 1909, a person shall be deemed to be the parent or child of the person deceased notwithstanding that he was only related to him in consequence of adoption; and accordingly in deducing any relationship which under the provisions of that section is included within the meaning of the expressions “parent” and “child” an adopted child shall be treated as being, or as having been, the legitimate offspring of his adopter. |
(6) Notwithstanding anything in this section, trustees or personal representatives —| (a) | may convey or distribute any movable or immovable property to or among the persons entitled thereto without having ascertained that no adoption order has been made by virtue of which any person is or may be entitled to any interest therein; and | | (b) | shall not be liable to any such person of whose claim they have not had notice at the time of the conveyance or distribution, |
| but nothing in this subsection shall prejudice the right of any such person to follow the property, or any property representing it, into the hands of any person, other than a purchaser, who may have received it. |
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| (7) Where an adoption order is made in respect of a person who has been previously adopted, the previous adoption shall be disregarded for the purposes of this section in relation to the devolution of any property on the death of a person dying intestate after the date of the subsequent adoption order and in relation to any disposition of property made after that date. |
| (8) For the purpose of the law relating to marriage, an adopter and the person whom he has been authorised to adopt under an adoption order and all children and adopted children of the adopter shall be deemed to be within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity; and this subsection shall continue to have effect notwithstanding that some person other than the adopter is authorised by a subsequent order to adopt the same infant. |
| (9) An adoption order shall not by itself affect the citizenship of the adopted child. |
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