(1)A child who is the subject of an adoption order shall be treated in law—
(a)where the adopters are a married couple, as if he had been born as a legitimate child of the marriage (whether or not he was in fact born after the marriage was constituted);
(b)in any other case, as if he had been born as a legitimate child of the adopter (but not as a child of any actual marriage of the adopter);
and as if he were not the child of any person other than the adopters or adopter.
(2)Where an illegitimate child has been adopted by one of his natural parents as sole adoptive parent and the adopter thereafter marries the other natural parent, subsection (1) shall not affect any enactment or rule of law whereby, by virtue of the marriage, the child is rendered the legitimate child of both natural parents.
(3)This section has effect—
(a)in the case of an adoption before 1st January 1976, from that date, and
(b)in the case of any other adoption, from the date of the adoption.
(4)Subject to the provisions of this Part, this section—
(a)applies for the construction of enactments or instruments passed or made before or after the commencement of this Act so far as the context admits; and
(b)does not affect things done or events occurring before the adoption or, where the adoption took place before 1st January 1976, before that date.
(5)This section has effect subject to the provisions of section 44.