Hernandez v. Scott

Swinehart, J.:

This is an appeal by prospective adoptive parents from a district court order denying their petition to adopt. The issues on appeal, both of first impression in Kansas, are whether the natural father of an illegitimate child has a paramount right over non-parents to custody of that child, and whether that portion of the Kansas adoption statute which requires the consent of the unwed mother but not the unwed father *91for adoption is unconstitutional. The trial court held that the natural father of an illegitimate child has a paramount right to custody as against non-parents where…