5294

VETOES

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,

Article 16 - Chancery

Section 74

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1981 Replacement Volume and 1981 Supplement)

(As enacted by Chapter 221 of the

Acts of the General Assembly of 1970)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of . Maryland
(as enacted by Chapter 221 of the Acts of the General
Assembly of 1970) read(s) as follows:

Article 16 - Chancery

74.

Every petition for adoption shall be accompanied by
written statements of consent, subscribed and sworn to
before a person authorized by law to administer an oath, as
specified in this section, except that the court may in its
discretion permit any petition to be filed without a
necessary consent if such consent is added to the petition
before the time set for hearings. However, the court may
grant a petition for adoption without any of the consents
hereinafter specified, if, after a hearing the court finds
that such consent or consents are withheld contrary to the
best interests of the child.

Consent to any proposed adoption shall be obtained
from:

(a)  The person to be adopted, if he is ten years of
age or over; and also,

(b)  Both the natural parents, if married, if they are
alive and have not lost their parental rights through court
action or voluntary relinquishment or abandonment; or

(c)  One natural parent, if the other is not alive or
has lost his parental rights as mentioned in (b) above; or

(d)  The mother of a child born out of wedlock, if she
is alive and has not lost her parental rights through court
action or voluntary relinquishment or abandonment, except
that if the child has been legitimated according to the laws
of any jurisdiction, the consent of the father shall then
also be required, if he is alive and has not subsequently
lost his parental rights through court action or voluntary
relinquishment or abandonment; or