Schwab Adoption Case

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Allen M. Stearns,

This is an appeal from a decree of an orphans’ court permitting the adoption of a minor. The pivotal question is whether an abandonment of the child, by its mother, was proven as required by section 2 (c) of the Act of April 4, 1925, P. L. 127, sec. 2, as amended April 26, 1929, P. L. 822, sec. 2, 1 PS, section 2 (c).

In Pennsylvania a valid adoption severs the child from its natural family tree and engrafts it upon that of its new parentage. Thereafter the child attains the status, in law, of a natural child of the adopting parents: Cave’s Estate, 326…