§ 194. 5) Adoption

From adoption (υἱοθεσία, adoptio) there likewise arises a certain kind of kinship, called νομικὴ ἢ πλασματικὴ συγγένεια (legalis vel ficta cognatio). This kinship arises between the adopter and certain of his kin on the one side, and the adoptee and certain of his kin on the other side. A person whom someone has adopted by lawful means, the adoptee, enters with the one who adopted him, the adopter, into the very same relations of kinship in which that person’s own blood-kin stand with him. The limits and the reckoning of the degrees of this kinship proceed in exactly the same way as in spiritual kinship.[1]

This kinship arising from adoption is in general of civil significance, since it arises through an act of civil authority;[2] but if the adoption was carried out with an ecclesiastical rite as well, then the ecclesiastical authority also takes notice of the kinship arising from such an adoption, and judges the matrimonial impediment concerning the adopted person in every respect just as if he were the natural son of the one who adopted him.[3]