Termination of Parental Rights: Overview

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• In some situations, parents' rights can be involuntarily terminated via a Termination of Parent Rights Hearing.
• The court will terminate rights if it determines 1) that the parents are unfit and 2) it is in the child's best interest that the parents' rights be terminated.
• There are various grounds of unfitness, but the most common ground is that parents have failed to correct the conditions that brought the children into care and/or have failed to make progress within the required timeline. (See 50/1 of the Adoption Act)
• Parents who have lost their rights are no longer entitled to further contact with or decision-making powers as to the child.
• If both parents have lost their rights, the child then becomes eligible for adoption.