To answer questions a–f, check your state code and court opinions.

a. In your state, who is eligible to adopt children? Who is not eligible?

b. What standards exist to guide a judge’s decision in your state on whether to approve a particular adoption?

c. Mary Jones is a Baptist. She wants to place her one-year-old child for adoption.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson want to adopt the child and file the appropriate petition to do so in your state. The Johnsons are Jewish. Mary Jones consents to the adoption. What effect, if any, will the religious differences between Mary Jones and the Johnsons have on the adoption? Assume that Mary has no objection to the child’s being raised in the Jewish faith.

d. Same facts as in part

(c) above except that the Johnsons are professed atheists.
Mary Jones does not care.

e. Can a homosexual adopt a minor in your state?

f. Under what circumstances, if any, can a single person—an adult who lives alone—adopt a minor in your state?
g. Both Paul and Helen Smith are deaf and mute. They wish to adopt the infant daughter of Helen’s best friend, a widow who just died. Prepare an investigation strategy to collect evidence relevant to whether the adoption should be permitted.