Page 13 - BusinessWest February 17, 2025

JULIE DIALESSI-LAFLEY
BRITANEY GUZMAN-BAILEY
“As a VAP is an equivalent to a court decree of parentage, this change is particularly important for the security of LGBTQ families who often face discrimination and worry about the status of their parent-child relationship.”
can be established. Pathways to parentage include giving birth, exe- cuting a voluntary acknowledgement of parentage (VAP) with the birth parent, adoption, assisted reproduction and surrogacy, obtain- ing an adjudication of parentage, de facto parentage, and presump- tions of parentage.
A VAP is a simple form that parents can sign in the hospital or later to voluntarily establish parentage. VAPs were previously avail- able only to genetic parents. Now, the act codifies that, in addition to genetic parents, presumed parents and intended parents can establish parentage through a VAP.
tinely relied on confirmatory adoptions, or second-parent adoptions, to establish parentage.
Although a VAP may now be an easier route for LGBTQ families to establish parentage, it is important for individuals to speak with an attorney regarding the specific facts surrounding their family to obtain advice on whether a confirmatory adoption is still recom- mended as an additional level of protection.
A de facto parent is a parent that does not have a biological rela- tion to the child but has meaningfully participated in the child’s
life as a family member. Although Massachusetts courts have long acknowledged de facto parenthood, the common-law doctrine only permitted de facto parents to seek parenting time. The MPA now includes persons who establish de facto parentage within the legal definition of ‘parent,’ therefore permitting de facto parents to peti- tion for all rights and responsibilities that may stem from the par- ent-child relationship. Accordingly, de facto parents may now obtain custody of their child if a court determines doing so is in the best interest of the child.
The person seeking to establish de facto parentage must demon- strate seven requirements: they resided with the child as a regular member of the child’s household for a period determined by the child’s age, they engaged in consistent caregiving of the child, they undertook full and permanent responsibilities of a parent of the child without expectation or payment of financial compensation, they held out the child as their own child, they established a bonded and dependent relationship with the child that is parental in nature, the child’s parent(s) consented to the bonded and dependent rela- tionship, and adjudicating them to be the child’s parent is in the child’s best interest.
Consent can be implied when a parent has not engaged with the child directly or participated in decision making or provided regu- lar financial support for at least two years. Notably, a parent cannot bring a de facto parentage action against another to request child support under the MPA; the act only authorizes the alleged de facto parent to commence the action.
The act also authorizes the court to adjudicate a child to have more than two parents if doing so is in the best interest of the child.
This means that a person who utilizes assisted reproduction when building their family, or a person who does not have a genetic relationship with the child but receives the child in their home and openly holds out the child as their own, has new options to estab- lish parentage.
New Protections
As a VAP is an equivalent to a court decree of parentage, this change is particularly important for the security of LGBTQ families who often face discrimination and worry about the status of their parent-child relationship. Prior to the MPA, LGBTQ families rou-
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