9. Effect of adoption order
Feedback & supportUpon an adoption order being made, all rights, duties, obligations and liabilities of the parent, guardian of the adopted child, in relation to the future custody, maintenance and education of the adopted child, including all rights to appoint a guardian or to consent or give notice of dissent to marriage shall be extinguished, and all such rights, duties, obligations and liabilities shall vest in and be exercisable by and enforceable against the adopter as though the adopted child was a child born to the adopter in lawful wedlock:
adopted child
“adopted child” means a child who has been authorized by the Court to be adopted or readopted;
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Provided that, in any case where two spouses are the adopters, such spouses shall in respect of the matters provided in this subsection and for the purpose of the jurisdiction of any Court to make orders as to the custody and maintenance of and right of access to children stand to each other and to the adopted child in the same relation as they would have stood if they had been the lawful father and mother of the adopted child, and the adopted child shall stand to them respectively to a lawful father and mother, respectively.
Court
“Court” means any Court having jurisdiction to make adoption orders under this Act;
Where, at any time after the making of an adoption order, the adopter or the adopted child or any other person dies intestate in respect of any movable or immovable property, that property shall devolve in all respects as if the adopted child were the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and were not the child of any other person.
adopter
“adopter” means a person authorized by an adoption order to adopt a child;
In any disposition of movable or immovable property made, whether by instrument inter vivos or by will (including codicil), after the date of an adoption order—
any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopter shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as, or as including, a reference to the adopted child;
any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopted child’s natural parents or either of them shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as not being, or as not including, a reference to the adopted child; and
any reference (whether express or implied) to a person related to the adopted child in any degree shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as a reference to the person who would be related to him in that degree if
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he were the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and were not the child of any other person.
Where an adopted child or the spouse or issue of an adopted child takes any interest in any movable or immovable property under any disposition, whether by instrument inter vivos or by will
spouse
“spouse” means in relation to a woman her husband, in relation to a man of Chinese race his principal wife, and in relation to any other man his wife. Power to make adoption orders
(including codicil), or under any intestacy, or where an adopter takes any interest in any movable or immovable property under any disposition as provided in this section by an adopted child or by the spouse or issue of an adopted child, or under the intestacy of an adopted child or of the spouse or issue of an adopted child, any estate or other duty which becomes leviable in respect of it shall be payable at the same rate as if the adopted child had been a child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock.
child
“child” means an unmarried person under the age of twenty-one and includes a female under that age who has been divorced;
Notwithstanding anything in this section, trustees or personal representatives may convey or distribute any movable or immovable property to or among the persons entitled to it without having ascertained that no adoption order has been made under which any person is or may be entitled to any interest in it, and shall not be liable to any such person of whose claim they have not had notice at the time of the conveyance or distribution; but nothing in this subsection shall prejudice the right of any such person to follow the property, or any property representing it, into the hands of any person, other than a purchaser, who may have received it.
Where an adoption order is made in respect of a person who has been previously adopted, the previous adoption shall be disregarded for the purposes of this section in relation to the devolution of any property on the death of a person dying intestate after the date of the subsequent adoption order and in relation to any disposition of property made after that date.
For the purposes of any written law relating to marriage for the time being in force in Malaysia or any part of it, an adopter and the
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child whom he has been authorized to adopt under an adoption order and all children and adopted children of the adopter shall be deemed to be within the prohibited degree of consanguinity; and this subsection shall continue to have effect notwithstanding that some person other than the adopter is authorized by a subsequent adoption order to adopt the same child.
For the purposes of any written law for the time being in force in Malaysia or any part of it relating to compensation to families for loss occasioned by the death of a person caused by actionable wrong, a person shall be deemed to be the parent or child of the person deceased notwithstanding that he was only related to him in consequence of adoption; and accordingly in deducing any relationship which under such legislation is included within the meaning of the expressions “parent” and “child” an adopted child shall be treated as being the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and not the child of any other person.