Effect of adoption order

(1) Upon an adoption order being made, all rights, duties, obligations and liabilities of the parents or guardians of the adopted child, in relation to the future custody, maintenance and education of the adopted child, including all rights to appoint a guardian and to consent or give notice of dissent to marriage, shall be extinguished, and all such rights, duties, obligations and liabilities as aforesaid shall vest in, and be exercisable by and enforceable against, the adopter as though the adopted child was born to the adopter in lawful wedlock. (2) In respect of the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section and the liability of a child to maintain its parents, the adopted child shall stand to the adopter exclusively in the position of a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock. (3) In any case where two spouses are the joint adopters, the spouses shall, in respect of the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section and for the purpose of the jurisdiction of the court to make orders relating to the custody, maintenance and right of access to children, stand to each and to the adopted child in the same relation as they would have stood if they had been the lawful natural parents of the adopted child, and the adopted child shall stand to them respectively in the same relation as a child would have stood to a lawful natural father and mother respectively. 78 (4) An adoption order shall not deprive the adopted child of any right to or interest in property to which, but for the order, the child would have been entitled under any intestacy or disposition, whether occurring or made before or after the making of the adoption order, or confer on the adopted child any right to or interest in property as a child of the adopter and the expression “child”, “children” and “issue” where used in any disposition, whether made before or after the making of an adoption order, shall not, unless the contrary intention appears, include an adopted child or children or the issue of an adopted (5) Where an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child takes any interest in real or personal property under a disposition by the adopter, or where an adopter takes any interest in real or personal property under a disposition by an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child, any succession, legacy or other duty which becomes leviable in respect thereof shall be payable at the same rate as if the adopted child had been a child born to the adopter in lawful (6) For the purposes of this section, “disposition” means an assurance of any interest in property, by an instrument whether inter vivos or by will, including a codicil. (7) For the purposes of any enactments relating to Friendly Societies, Collecting Societies or other Associations, which enable such societies and associations to insure money to be paid for funeral expenses, and which restrict the persons to whom money may be paid on the death of a child under the age of ten, the adopter shall be deemed to be the parent of the child, and where before the adoption order was made any such insurance had been effected by the natural parent of the child, the rights and liabilities under the policy shall by virtue of the adoption order be transferred to the adopter, and the adopter shall, for the purposes of the said enactments, be treated as the person who took out the policy. 79