---
title: O.C.G.A. § 19-8-25. Effect of prior consent or surrender of rights.
collection: code
id: 19-8-25
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 19-8-25 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-8-25
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-8-25.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-8-25/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t18-t19-(v16)-2022-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=b0848ebd_0#page=880
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: DOMESTIC RELATIONS / ADOPTION / GENERAL PROVISIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 19-8-25. Effect of prior consent or surrender of rights.

(a) A written consent or surrender of rights, executed on or before August 31, 2018, shall, for purposes of an adoption proceeding commenced on or after September 1, 2018, be deemed to satisfy the surrender requirements of this article and it shall not be necessary to have any parent or guardian execute the documents required by Code Section 19-8-4, 19-8-5, 19-8-6, or 19-8-7; however, all other applicable provisions of this article shall be complied with.

(b) It is the legislative intent of this subsection to clarify and not to change the applicability of certain previously existing provisions of this article to adoption proceedings pending on August 31, 2018. Any decree of adoption issued in an adoption proceeding in which the adoption petition was filed in a superior court of this state prior to September 1, 2018, shall be valid if the adoption conformed to the requirements of this article either as they existed on August 31, 2018, or on September 1, 2018, and each such adoption decree is hereby ratified and confirmed.

## History

Code 1981, § 19-8-25, enacted by Ga. L. 1990, p. 1572, § 5; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1640, § 12; Ga. L. 2018, p. 19, § 1-1/HB 159.