What is the legal age for adoption?

| 28/05/2019

Can you please clarify what is the age for adoption in Cayman, and what age does the person adopting has to be? I am told you can adopt an 18-year-old person and the person adopting can be 26 years old. Please clarify because if what I am told is true, Cayman has a big, big problem.


Ask Auntie, CNS Local Life, Caymanian status

Auntie’s answer: The information you were given is only half right. Under Section 17 of the Adoption of Children Law, 2013, generally speaking a person between the ages of 25 and 65 is allowed to adopt a child, though the Grand Court is given the discretion to make an adoption order in favour of someone younger than 25 (but at least 18) and older than 65 based on the views of the Adoption Board and the findings of the Department of Children and Family Services.

However, the law defines a child as a person under the age of 18 years, meaning you cannot adopt anyone older than that.

While I do not want to get into the possible reasons for the reader’s concern, I will point out that Section 17(2) of the law says, “An adoption order shall not be made (a) in respect of a child who is a female in favour of a sole applicant who is a male; or (b) in respect of a child who is a male in favour of a sole applicant who is a female” except if the Grand Court is satisfied there are special circumstances justifying that decision.

But, importantly, the law specifies that “in no circumstances shall an adoption order be made where a sole applicant is known or reasonably suspected to have a sexual attraction to children”. And that is all I want to write on that subject.

The law mentioned above can be found on the CNS Library

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Comments (3)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Auntie, WORC are accepting adoptions of adults in Honduras as valid and allowing the persons into Cayman. Anyone else think this is a little cray cray and someone should have to answer for it?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Am I reading this law correct, that a 26 year old male can adopt a 18 year old boy under
    the Cayman Adoption laws…. if so PPM Government need to look into this Law urgently.

    How can they be against same sex marriage, if they are allowing 26 year old males to adopt 18 year old boys.

    • Anonymous says:

      If you will go back and read it more carefully, ” the law defines a child as a person under the age of 18 years”. So that is 17 years old, not 18