P.R. Laws tit. 31, § 539
The provisions of § 538 of this title notwithstanding, the legal nexus of the adoptee with his/her former paternal or maternal family shall continue when the adoptee is the child of the spouse of the adopter, even though the father or mother may have died by the date on which the adoption petition is filed, or when the adoptee is the issue of a single filiation and is adopted by a person of a different sex than that of the parent who has acknowledged him/her as his/her child.
The rupture and extinction of the legal nexus of the adoptee with his/her former family, and the birth of such a nexus with the family of the adopter shall be understood to be without prejudice of the regulations on legal impediments and prohibitions to contract marriage in Puerto Rico. An adoptee shall not marry a relative of his former family that he/she would not have been able to marry if the adoption had not taken place.
The criminal liability of the adoptee regarding crimes against the family and civil status with regard to his/her former biological family, shall continue being the same as provided in the body of laws in effect, as though the adoption had not been decreed, should it be proven that the adoptee was cognizant of his/her kinship with the victim of incest.
The adoptee shall acquire the family names of the adopter or the adopting couple, except when otherwise determined by the court for just cause.
History —Civil Code, 1930, added as § 138 on Jan. 19, 1995, No. 8, § 1.