40-8-111. Consent required for adoption. (1) An adoption of a child may be decreed when there have been filed written consents to adoption executed by:
     (a) both parents, if living, or the surviving parent of a child, provided that consent is not required from a father or mother:
     (i) adjudged guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction of assault on a child, as provided in 45-5-201; sexual assault on a child, as provided in 45-5-502; sexual intercourse without consent, as provided in 45-5-503, if the victim was a child; incest, as provided in 45-5-507, if the victim was a child; endangering the welfare of children, concerning a child, as provided in 45-5-622; sexual abuse of children, toward a child, as provided in 45-5-625; or ritual abuse of a minor, as provided in 45-5-627;
     (ii) who has been judicially deprived of the custody of the child on account of cruelty or neglect toward the child;
     (iii) who has, in the state of Montana or in any other state of the United States, willfully abandoned the child, as defined in 41-3-102(7)(e);
     (iv) who has caused the child to be maintained by any public or private children's institution, any charitable agency, or any licensed adoption agency or the department of public health and human services of the state of Montana for a period of 1 year without contributing to the support of the child during that period, if able;
     (v) if it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that the father or mother, if able, has not contributed to the support of the child during a period of 1 year before the filing of a petition for adoption; or
     (vi) whose parental rights have been judicially terminated;
     (b) the legal guardian of the child if both parents are dead or if the rights of the parents have been terminated by judicial proceedings and the guardian has authority by order of the court appointing the guardian to consent to the adoption;
     (c) the executive head of an agency if the child has been relinquished for adoption to the agency or if the rights of the parents have been judicially terminated or if both parents are dead and custody of the child has been legally vested in the agency with authority to consent to adoption of the child; or
     (d) any person having legal custody of a child by court order if the parental rights of the parents have been judicially terminated. In that case, the court having jurisdiction of the custody of the child shall consent to adoption and a certified copy of its order must be attached to the petition.
     (2) The consents required by subsections (1)(a) and (1)(b) must be acknowledged before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments or witnessed by a representative of the department of public health and human services or of an agency or witnessed by a representative of the court.

     History: En. Sec. 5, Ch. 240, L. 1957; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 199, L. 1961; amd. Sec. 48, Ch. 121, L. 1974; amd. Sec. 27, Ch. 512, L. 1975; R.C.M. 1947, 61-205; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 33, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 8, Ch. 530, L. 1981; amd. Sec. 11, Ch. 609, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 439, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 369, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 5, Ch. 458, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 154, Ch. 546, L. 1995.