§ 19-8-19.Effect of decree of adoption
Chapter 8. Adoption · Article 1. General Provisions · Last amended 2018 · Last verified October 9, 2026
Full Text of § 19-8-19
Plain-English Summary
This section applies to any adoption decree, whether a Georgia court or a court elsewhere entered it, whenever the question comes before a Georgia court. It does two things. First, it ends every legal relationship between the adopted person and his or her former relatives, including the birth parent. The adopted person becomes a stranger to them for all purposes, including inheritance and the reading of documents, statutes and other instruments — whether signed before or after the adoption — unless a document names the person or describes him or her in a way not based on a parent-child or blood relationship. The one exception is the petitioner’s spouse and the spouse’s relatives, so in a stepparent adoption the child keeps the legal tie to the parent married to the adopting stepparent and to that parent’s family.
Second, the decree makes each petitioner the adopted person’s parent, as if the adopted person had been born to that petitioner. The adopted person gets every right and privilege of a biological child: inheriting when a parent dies without a will, taking under wills and other testamentary gifts signed before or after the adoption unless expressly excluded, inheriting from the adoptive parent’s relatives, and sharing in a class gift — such as a gift to someone’s grandchildren — made by the will of a third person.
Subsection (b) carves out one protection. If a parent dies before a court order has ended the parent-child relationship, the later adoption doesn’t cut off the child’s right to inherit from or through that parent. A child whose father died, for example, and who is then adopted by the mother’s new husband can still inherit from and through the late father. Under § 19-8-21, the same rules apply to adult adoptions. The section was last amended in 2018.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an adopted child inherit from biological parents in Georgia?
Generally no. The decree makes the adopted person a stranger to former relatives for all purposes, including inheritance. There are two openings. If a parent died before a court order ended the parent-child relationship, the adoption doesn’t affect the child’s right to inherit from or through that parent. And a will or other document can still include the person by name or by a description that isn’t based on a parent-child or blood relationship.
Does an adopted child inherit from adoptive grandparents in Georgia?
Yes. The adopted person takes by inheritance from relatives of the adoptive parent, just as a biological child would. The adopted person also takes as a child of the adoptive parent under a class gift made by the will of a third person, such as a grandparent’s gift to all of a son’s children.
Does a stepparent adoption cut the child off from the other side of the family?
Usually, yes. The decree ends the child’s legal relationships with former relatives, except the petitioner’s spouse and that spouse’s relatives. So in a stepparent adoption, the child keeps legal ties to the parent married to the stepparent and that parent’s family, while ties to the other parent’s family end. If that other parent had died before any court order ended the relationship, the child can still inherit from or through that parent.
Does Georgia treat an out-of-state or foreign adoption the same way?
Yes, for matters before a Georgia court. The section applies to a decree of adoption whether it was issued by a Georgia court or by a court of any other jurisdiction. The adopted person has the same rights as one adopted in Georgia, and the same break with former relatives applies. Section 19-8-22 separately addresses recognition of other courts’ adoption decrees.
Does an adoption change how an old will is read?
Yes. As the adoptive parent’s child, the adopted person takes under wills and other testamentary gifts, whether signed before or after the adoption, unless expressly excluded. In the other direction, documents and instruments — again, whether signed before or after the adoption — no longer treat the adopted person as a member of the birth family unless they name the person or describe him or her without relying on a parent-child or blood relationship.
Amendment History
Laws 1990, p. 1572, § 5; Laws 2018, Act 285, § 1-1, eff. Sept. 1, 2018.