Thoughts on the unsealing of Adoption records

The_Conductor

In the US every so often the debate about the unsealing of adoption records comes to the fore once more. There are already 5 states where adopted people, once they reach the age of 21, are entitled to apply to have their adoption orders unsealed and are given a copy of their original birth certificates. The following article is in today's North Carolina Times:

Bill looks to open adoption records

By Barry Smith / Freedom Raleigh Bureau
April 23, 2007 3:00 AM

RALEIGH — Efforts are under way to change North Carolina’s adoption laws so that once adopted children reach adulthood, they would have access to their original birth certificate containing their birth parents’ names.

Roberta MacDonald of the N.C. Coalition for Adoption Reform said the change is necessary to, among other things, give adults who have been adopted the same rights that other adults have.

Lee Allen, a spokesman for the National Council for Adoption, disagreed. He said the legislation fails to take into consideration the rights and privacy of birth mothers.

“This is about a right to a document that an unadopted (person) takes for granted,” MacDonald said. “Adoptees never had a voice or never had a choice in whether to have their records sealed.”

“Birth mothers, yesterday, today and tomorrow, often have made or will make placement decisions based on a promise of confidentiality,” Allen said. “We do believe in openness in adoption practice as long as it’s mutually consensual openness, meaning that all parties are able to control the level of openness that they’re comfortable with.”

Bills opening such records have been filed by Rep. Margaret Dickson, D-Cumberland; Sen. Janet Cowell, D-Wake; and Sen. Katie Dorsett, D-Guilford.

Specifically, the proposed law would allow an adult adoptee whose original birth certificate was sealed at adoption to make a written request to the state registrar to receive that original birth certificate.

An adult lineal descendant of a deceased adoptee could also make such a request.

It also would allow the birth parent to request a contact preference form in which the parent could indicate whether she would like to be contacted by the adoptee. It also allows for the birth parent to complete an updated medical history form that could be given to the adoptee.

Allen said that common practice today makes it easy for all parties in an adoption to make a decision on openness.

“For the state of North Carolina to go back and retroactively open records and allow one party of adoption to unilaterally make a decision on contact and to be able to impose themselves on another party is very much breeching the rights of another person,” he said.

Allen said that an adoptee’s birth certificate was changed in the first place to protect the privacy of the biological mother.

“They were changed in the first place because state law made that an available option,” Allen said. “For very logical reasons, some birth mothers today even make confidentiality a requirement for placement.”

If confidentially isn’t respected, Allen said that some mothers who otherwise would have placed their children for adoption will either have an abortion or try to raise the child themselves, even though they may not be ready to do so.

He said that birth mothers have rights, too.

“It’s an issue of competing rights,” he said. “When people start talking about competing rights, nobody wins.”

MacDonald said that in other states which have open adoption records, adoptees respect the will of birth parents who want to be left alone.

“We have not heard of one case of an adoptee going up and knocking on a birth parent’s door who has stated ‘we don’t want contact,’” MacDonald said.

MacDonald listed a number of other reasons why adoptees should have access to their original birth records.

Being able to get a family medical history is one of them.

“You go for more tests than the normal person, just because you were adopted,” she said. That’s necessary because a family medical history is unavailable, she said.

In some counties, siblings can go to school together without realizing that they’re related, she said. In some cases, they may be attracted to one another because of a common interest and may begin dating, MacDonald said.

“You can’t determine who you’re going to fall in love with,” she said.

North Carolina is not alone in its law which seals birth certificates at adoption. Most states do.

States that have open records include Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, New Hampshire and Oregon, Allen said.

Link to send letter to the editor: http://www.thetimesnews.com/sections/contactus/letter.php

Ickle Magoo

I think releasing the files are a good thing. I had a sealed file until I was 18 & it was great to open it at last & see where I came from & what actually happened. Adopted people deserve the truth & the opportunity to get questions answered.