Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / November 2007

Report: Let adoptees see records
Adults should be allowed to contact birth parents, leading institute
says
The Associated Press
updated 10:50 a.m. ET, Mon., Nov. 12, 2007
NEW YORK - It's among the most divisive questions in the realm of
adoption: Should adult adoptees have access to their birth records,
and thus be able to learn the identity of their birthparents?

In a comprehensive report being released Monday, a leading adoption
institute says the answer is "Yes" and urges the rest of America to
follow the path of the eight states that allow such access to all
adults who were adopted.

"States' experiences in providing this information make clear that
there are minimal, if any, negative repercussions," said the Evan B.
Donaldson Adoption Institute. "Outcomes appear to have been
overwhelmingly positive for adult adopted persons and birth parents
alike."

Opponents of open access argue that unsealing birth records violates
the privacy that birth mothers expected when they opted to give up
their babies. They raise the specter of birth parents forced into
unwanted relationships with grown children who have tracked them down.

But the Donaldson Institute says most birth parents, rather than being
fearful and ashamed, welcome contact with the children they bore. Its
report says the states with open records have found that most birth
parents and adoptees handle any contact with maturity and respect.

Kansas and Alaska never barred adoptees from seeing their birth
certificates. Since 1996, six other states - Alabama, Delaware, Maine,
New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee - have decided to allow access to
all adult adoptees.

However, the progression has been slow, and open-records legislation
has been rebuffed in many states by a determined and diverse
opposition.

Opponents in Connecticut, where bills have failed in each of the past
two years, included the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union. It depicted itself as a voice for birth mothers who opposed the
measure but were reluctant to speak out publicly.

In New Jersey, where a long-running campaign to pass an open-records
bill was derailed again this year, the opposition includes New Jersey
Right to Life and the New Jersey Catholic Conference. They argue that
eliminating the prospect of confidentiality might prompt a pregnant
single woman to choose abortion rather than adoption.

Marlene Lao-Collins of the Catholic Conference said she knew of no
data supporting the concerns about abortions, "but even if it just
happened once, that would be one too many.''

Nationwide, one of the major foes of open records is the National
Council for Adoption, which represents many religiously affiliated
adoption agencies. Its president, Thomas Atwood, says any reconnection
between an adopted adult and a birthparent should be by mutual consent
- which is the policy in most states.

"I empathize with anybody who feels the need to know their biological
parents' identity,'' Atwood said. "But I don't think the law should
enable them to force themselves on someone who has personal reasons
for wanting confidentiality.''

Identity denied
The Donaldson report says evidence from the states with open records
rebuts every argument against the concept. Notably, it says there is
no proof that abortions rise, that adoptions decline, or that
birthparents are harassed following a switch to open records.

"There has been no evidence that the lives of birth mothers have been
damaged as a result,'' the report says. "In the states that have
amended their laws ... few birth mothers have expressed the desire to
keep records sealed or the wish not to be contacted.''

The most recent state to opt for open records is Maine; a law signed
in June will allow adult adoptees to access their birth certificates
starting in 2009.

One of the bill's main sponsors was state Sen. Paula Benoit, an
adoptee who personally lobbied all her colleagues. While working on
the bill, she uncovered her own biological background and learned, to
her amazement, that two Democratic lawmakers she was working with were
her nephews.

"There are so many adoptees who want to know who they are," she said.
"Can you imagine being denied your identity?''

Among the many birthmothers grateful to have been found by children
they relinquished is Eileen McQuade of Delray Beach, Fla., who is
president of the American Adoption Congress and a fervent advocate of
open records.

"Secrecy was the way it was done at the time - it was not a choice or
a preference on the part of the mothers,'' McQuade said of the 1960s,
when she placed a daughter for adoption. "We treat adoptees as if
they're forever children - it's absurd.''

The Donaldson report depicts adopted people as the only class of
Americans not permitted to routinely obtain their birth certificates.

Giving them full access "is a matter of legal equality, ethical
practice and, on a human level, basic fairness,'' the report said. "It
is an essential step toward placing adoptive families, families of
origin, everyone connected to them and, indeed, adoption itself on a
level playing field within society, without the stigma, shame and
inequitable treatment they have experienced in the past.''

"The mythology around adoption is based on the notion that you should
be protecting someone from something,'' said the institute's executive
director, Adam Pertman.

"But that's not the reality,'' he said. "Adoptees are not behaving
poorly, they're behaving very respectfully, and birth parents do not
appear to be a frightened class that wants to hide.''

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21741004/