Adoption is a legal process that ceases the rights and duties of birth parents in caring for a child, and transfers them to adoptive parents. 

The Family Court will instruct applicants to seek consent from the Director-General of Social Welfare (DGSW) from MSF to act as Guardian-In-Adoption (GIA) for the child during the adoption process. The GIA has the duty of safeguarding the interest of the child before the Court and would conduct the n​ecessary social investigations into t​he circumstances of the adoption application before submitting an affidavit to the Court. The Court will make the final decision on the adoption application, taking into account the child's welfare.