(a) Subject to this title, any person may adopt or be adopted by another person for the purpose of creating the relationship of parent and child between them.

(b) If a family unit consists of a parent and the parent's partner, and adoption is in the best interests of the child, the partner of a parent may adopt a child of the parent. Termination of the parent's parental rights is unnecessary in an adoption under this subsection. (Added 1995, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)