Second-Parent Adoption Means Security
By Lori Dutcher
My partner gave birth to our daughter, Tori, in 1995 in upstate New York. We always planned to go through the steps for a second-parent adoption so that Tori would benefit from my insurance.
In 1996, the need to finalize the adoption became urgent. My partner was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After almost a year of treatments, the doctors determined that she would need to go to Boston for a stem cell transplant. It was a last ditch effort to try and beat the cancer, but nobody was very optimistic.
In Boston, the doctors told us to go home, get everything in order and then come back for the procedure. The adoption process had started, and, fortunately, we had a great attorney who was able to convince the judge to expedite the adoption. We needed all the strength we had to get through the stem cell process. Knowing that the adoption was in place and Tori would stay with me no matter what allowed us to put one big worry aside.
Five years later my partner is cancer free, and our family is strong. However, I am still the primary income earner and it is my employer that provides our health insurance. If something should happen to me, my partner would not get Social Security benefits, but we know our daughter would.
Both my partner and I provide our daughter with love and emotional security. But it will always be my job to provide for her financial security and without the benefits of second-parent adoption, it would have been much harder to do that.
Sept. 16, 2002