A. A consent to adoption or relinquishment of parental rights shall be signed before and approved on the record by a judge who has jurisdiction over adoption proceedings, within or without this state, and who is in the jurisdiction in which the child is present or in which the parent resides at the time it is signed.

B. No parent may relinquish parental rights to the department or an agency without the department's or the agency's consent.

C. The consent or relinquishment shall be filed with the court in which the petition for adoption has been filed before adjudication of the petition.

D. Prior to the approval of a consent to adoption or relinquishment of parental rights, a full and specific accounting signed under penalty of perjury shall be filed by the prospective adoptive parents or their representative in the same court where the associated consent or relinquishment may later be heard. The accounting shall be filed no later than seventy-two hours prior to the anticipated hearing on the proposed consent or relinquishment. The disbursements and expenses itemized in the accounting must be approved by the court prior to approval of a consent to adoption or relinquishment or consent to adoption by a parent for the parent's child. The accounting shall itemize in detail, including the dates and purpose of each disbursement or expense payment and the name and address of each person who received or will receive any disbursement or payment:

(1) all disbursements, as well as anticipated or promised disbursements, of anything of value provided by or on behalf of:

(a) the prospective adoptive parents; or

(b) any person who may profit or be compensated as a result of an adoption associated with the consent or relinquishment;

(2) all disbursements of anything of value to the parents of the child or the child; and

(3) all expenses paid on behalf of the parents of the child or the child.

E. The accounting required in Subsection D of this section is not applicable to stepparent adoptions or to adoptions pursuant to the provisions of the Abuse and Neglect Act [Chapter 32A, Article 4 NMSA 1978], unless ordered by the court.

History: 1978 Comp., § 32A-5-23, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 77, § 150; 1995, ch. 206, § 36; 2005, ch. 189, § 65; 2012, ch. 28, § 2.

The 2012 amendment, effective March 3, 2012, required an accounting of disbursements prior to a consent to adoption or relinquishment of parental rights by the prospective adoptive parents; in the title after "relinquishments", added "; accounting of disbursements"; and added Subsections D and E.

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, deleted former Subsection A(2), which provided that a consent to adoption or relinquishment could be signed before and approved by an individual of appointed by the department or an agency licensed by the state when the parent is represented by counsel and a guardian ad litem has been appointed for the adoptee.

The 1995 amendment, effective July 1, 1995, added "and a guardian ad litem has been appointed for any adoptee whose consent is required" and made a minor stylistic change in Paragraph (2) of Subsection A.

Birth parents fully understood. — Where director of private adoption agency testified that he made sure the birth parents understood the ramifications of what they were doing, that the relinquishment and consent were final and irrevocable, that they had received legal advice and counseling about all alternatives available to them, and that they agreed with the counseling narrative attached to each respective relinquishment and consent form, and he spent about an hour with the birth parents before the signing, and he did not hear any reluctance or reservations from either parent, about their course of action, the evidence supports the inference that the birth parents fully understood the consequences of the relinquishment and consent. Vigil v. Fogerson, 2006-NMCA-010, 138 N.M. 822, 126 P.3d 1186.