should non-biological parents be forced to pay child support? We have no legal rights to our children?

My son wants to adopt his son. Lawyers say that if he does, he will have to pay nine years of back support. My son has paid for most of grandson's expenses. The mother takes us for a ride because she knows that at any time she can tell my so that he cannot see my grandson.
They have never been married and a month after baby was born, they parted.
we amy be non-biological, but our boy gets more love than most.


Answers:
In a nation free of hypocrisy anyone without legal say should not have to pay. What are they paying for? They get no benefits. But as it is now. It is all about the money and pleasing the female voting base. Those vipers in Washington would vote in all males to be castrated if they knew they had a loophole to get ut of it, just so the female voting bloc would be locked up and they can stay in office.
I do not agree with the nine years of back support he has to pay, I mean why did she not ask for it during that time?

As to his rights - the rights regarding a child is vested in the primary care giver(this means the person who has legal custody) and most countries have laws that allows or gives the biological fathers the right to apply for those rights if they were not married to the mother.(Obviously if they were married he still has those rights, only the court can take them away unless he gives them up by letting the child be adopted by someone else)

In reference to the other answers about the child support: It is not rent a child, it's maintenance for the child. The easiest way to explain is to compare to buying a car. While you may pay the monthly installments and have posession and the use and enjoyment of the car, it still belongs to the bank legally. So, no matter if you are paying support, the child does not become yours to do with as you wish, it remains a seperate legal enitiy with rights and privilages of it's own. These are protected by law and no amount of money will change that.

The best advice I can give would be that your son seek good legal counsel and try to negotiate some sort of deal as he has already been giving monetary support in some way. Also, the courts will not allow him to adopt the child against the mother's wishes( I assume this to be the case as she is insisting on the back support) unless he can prove that she is somehow unfit, if he can do that it may be possible to circumvent the nine years back payment.

I wish you the best of luck.