Consent to adoption of five-year-old
Supreme Court judgment 11 September 2018, HR-2018-1720-A (case no. 2018/77), civil case, appeal against judgment, A (Counsel Camilla Hagen) B (Counsel Christian Gustavsen) v. Municipality of X (Counsel Mette Yvonne Larsen)
Justices: Kallerud, Normann, Høgetveit Berg, Webster
The County Social Welfare Board had ordered deprivation of parental responsibility and consented to forced adoption under section 4-20 of the Child Welfare Act of a, now, five-year-old boy. He had been taken from his parents immediately after his birth and been living with his foster parents for almost four years. He was also very vulnerable and in need of special care. Following an overall assessment, the Supreme Court found that it would be in the child's best interests if the foster parents adopted him, arguing that no established social ties between the boy and his biological parents would be severed, as he had never had any form of access to them. The Court also doubted whether he would ever understand the meaning of "biological parents". Appropriate contact between the boy and his biological parents would in any case depend on the foster parents. It was concluded that such "exceptional circumstances" were present that justified forced adoption in accordance with case law of the Supreme Court and ECtHR. The appeal against the court of appeal's judgment allowing deprivation of parental responsibility and forced adoption was dismissed.