40-8-114. Adoption policy -- best interest of child standard -- factors to be considered. (1) It is the policy of the state of Montana to ensure that the best interests of the child are met by adoption proceedings.
     (2) The primary purpose of adoption is to help a child become a permanent member of a nurturing family that can give him the care, protection, and opportunities essential for his healthy personal growth and development.
     (3) The well-being of the adopted child is the main objective in the placement of children for adoption. The needs of the child must be the primary focus of adoption proceedings, with full recognition of the interdependent needs and interests of birth parents and adoptive parents.
     (4) All relevant factors must be considered in determining the best interests of the child in an adoption proceeding. Factors relevant to the determination of a prospective adoptive parent's parenting ability, the future security for a child, and familial stability must be considered. In determining the best interests of the child, the following factors with regard to a prospective adoptive parent may be considered:
     (a) age, as it relates to health, earning capacity, provisions for the support of a child, or other relevant circumstance;
     (b) marital status, as it relates to the ability to serve as a parent in particularized circumstances; and
     (c) religion, as it relates to the ability to provide the child with an opportunity for religious or spiritual and ethical development and as it relates to the express preference of a birth parent to have a child placed with or the express preference of a child to be placed with adoptive parents of a particular religious faith or denomination.
     (5) For purposes of ensuring that the best interests of the child are met, the department and licensed child-placing agencies are authorized to gather and use, in an appropriate, nonarbitrary manner, information concerning the age, marital status, and religious beliefs of prospective adoptive parents. The authority granted by this subsection includes the authority to receive and to consider, consistent with the best interests of the child, the preferences of birth parents relating to the age, marital status, or religious beliefs of adoptive parents. Consideration of religious factors by a licensed child-placing agency that is affiliated with a particular religious faith is not arbitrary consideration of religion within the meaning of this section.

     History: En. Sec. 1, Ch. 682, L. 1991.