Which family type involves legal rights being transferred from birth parents to adoptive parents?

Adoptive families involve a legal process where the rights and responsibilities of the birth parents are fully transferred to the adoptive parents. This means that the adoptive parents are legally recognized as the child's parents and have all the rights and obligations that come with that status. Adoption creates a permanent family unit, and the child becomes a member of the adoptive family, often taking the family name and developing the same legal and emotional ties as biological children.

In contrast, blended families consist of parents and children from previous relationships coming together to form a new family unit but do not involve the legal transfer of rights in the same manner as adoption. Foster families provide temporary care for children who cannot live with their birth families but retain the legal rights of the birth parents, as the goal is often reunification rather than permanent adoption. Nuclear families refer to a traditional family structure consisting of two parents and their biological children, which does not encompass the legal complexities of adoption. These distinctions clarify why adoptive families uniquely embody the transfer of legal rights that is integral to the definition of adoption.