The Problem of Origin and Adaptation of the Child in Canon Law

Abstract

The origin and adaptation of the child is a legal issue. It has recently become more important – because of a growing number of adoptions, or legal institutions that resemble adoption, i.e. family homes for children or substitute families. The issue of adoption in Polish canon law is treated in its narrow sense. We are dealing here with the so-called canonisation of the law, or the taking over of the civil law by the Church.

The paper presents a synthetic approach to the issue of origin and adaptation of the child in the law of the Latin Church, paying special attention to the problematic issues that have not been solved yet. They are the following: the church legal norms dealing with the origin of children, adaptation of children, and above all the attempts to solve the problem connected with the establishment of legal kinship in the situation when the civil law allows to dissolve the relationship of adaptation.