In this two-part interview, I ask questions of members of the Adoptee Rights Coalition: Michelle Edmunds, Joy Madsen, Cathy Robishaw, Heather Holmes, Theresa Hood, Dory Martin, Diane Crossfield, and Jimm Mandenberg.
What's the big deal, really? It's just a piece of paper. Does having it or not really change who you are?
Adoptee Rights Coalition: Access to a birth certificate is not about changing who you are; it's about being treated equal in a jurisdiction where non-adopted citizens are not restricted from obtaining their own personal information. One could express the same casualness about a marriage certificate or a baptismal certificate; however, it's not against the law for the owners of those documents to obtain them.
Are there states where some adoptees can have access to their original birth certificates and other adoptees can't? Would you explain?
ARC: There are ten states that provide conditional access which we view as unacceptable. Equality is not achieved unless access is provided to all. To refuse an adult access to their own birth certificate simply because they were born on a certain date or because a birth-parent wishes them not to have it is a gross violation that should not be tolerated by anyone.
How does a state justify releasing a birth certificate to someone born Dec. 31, 1967 but not to someone born Jan. 1, 1968?
What people or groups, do you think, are impeding the efforts to open records, and why would they do so?
ARC: The National Council for Adoption is the most vocal opponent to unsealing birth certificates. This is odd, because this organization claims to be the advocates of birth-parent privacy, yet the NCFA is composed mostly of adoptive parents and adoption agencies, not birth-parents. One would assume their primary concern would be the rights and well-being of the children that were adopted, therefore speaking out against adoptee discrimination and lobbying for their children’s right to obtain their own birth certificate as an adult.
But instead they fight it.
If the debate pits birthparent privacy against adoptee access, why should laws come down on the side of the adoptee?
ARC: Advocates for unsealing birth certificates are not pitting birth-parent rights against adoptee rights. A privacy/anonymity 'right' for a birth-parent does not exist in any legislation or on any adoption contract, so there is no appeasement of ‘rights’ that is up for negotiation.
An adopted person is discriminated against because she or he can not obtain a copy of their birth registration, a document that all non-adopted persons can easily obtain. Birth-parents who surrendered children for adoption were never legally guaranteed privacy/anonymity by lawmakers. Birth certificates were/are sealed upon adoption, not upon relinquishment. Children that were relinquished and remained in foster care, but were never adopted, did not have their birth certificates sealed, therefore extinguishing the birth-parent privacy argument. If privacy for a birth-parent is the debate, then all children surrendered by a parent(s) would have their birth certificates sealed.
Once a child-surrender form is signed, that person is no longer a legal parent to that child. So how can a perceived non-parent have 'rights' over a child they have surrendered and the legal connection severed?
Next: birthparent right to privacy; does access equal contact? how to make a difference.
Comments
Great interview, Lori. I have been trying to understand this issue, and this definitely helped.
My husband was adopted, and we actually had a debate about this issue earlier this week. He was able to have his adoption file unsealed for medical reasons a couple of years ago. (He needed a bone marrow transplant to save his life, and we needed to know if he had any bio siblings.) We had to go thru a lot to do it. Then, he still was not allowed to see what was inside. A social worker contacted his birth mom to see if she would be willing to talk to us. His life was literally in her hands. Luckily, she wanted to connect with him, but I thought it was so unfair that every effort was made to protect her identity, but not my husband's.
Anyway, during our debate this week, my husband was surprisingly in favor of protecting the birthmom's privacy. He was under the impression that they have a legal right to it. But, now that I read this, I see that birth moms are never promised privacy.
On one hand, I believe every person should have rights to their own birth certificate. It seems like a natural right.
But if birth parents are in fear of their identity being exposed, would they make choices other than adoption?
I can see how this is a sticky situation.
As someone is also involved in this organization as a representative, an expectant mother is more likely to choose adoption if the records were unsealed. This was a side note in a study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute. They did a study as to why women abort. One of my observations with researching adoption for close to four years, women who voluntarily relinquish their children could and would be very successful parents. They are already thinking of their children. 95% of relinquishing mothers wanted confidentiality from the public eye, not from their children. This has come from Elizabeth Samuals, a former ACLU attorney, and E. Wayne Carp, an adoption researcher. It is horrendous to think that many in the adoption community would still like to continue to make adult adoptees responsible for the reproductive choices of American women.
I am reunited with my son. I was never promised confidentiality from him. In fact (and this may surprise some people), I was promised the opposite. I was promised that my son would be able to find me. That was in Ontario, Canada. The government there has opened the records. The Ontario government was forced to put in a disclosure veto by a judge for past adoptions but there are none for all future adoptions.
I fully support open records.
One other thing - some adoptees in the US are now finding that they can't get passports, etc, because they are unable to produce their original birth certificate.
That is discrimination, is it not?
No adult that is non-adopted in the U.S. needs permission from their mothers to view their own birth certificate, except adult adopted individuals. As adults, we can't access or view our orig. birth certif. This is an outrage and dircrimination. My birth cetif. is a document that pertains to me, to my birth. It does not pertain to my birthmother or to my adoptive parents, it is "my" public document. Why should the birthmother have any rights over who can see or not see this certificate that does not pertain to her? It is my record of birth, not hers. Should all mothers, therefore, have a right to their adult childrens' documents, adopted or not? Just because they are named on the certificate? My birthmom gave birth to me, therefore, she is named on it.My birth is a fact, it's been recorded, it's my history and I have a right to my own document.
hi, the mothers had their rights taken away from them. So how could they have any rights to stop an adoptee from having anything.
I am not trying to be mean. Its the law. They first have to legally declare the child abandoned to be able to put that child up for adoption. Then the parents who want to adopt have to petition to adopt.
If anyone wants search help:
come to www.nyadoptees.com
sincerely,
Joan
Adoptees are NOT blank flesh canvasses of which to paint identities onto.
The day I received my OBC in the mail was a very special moment. My biological mom couldn't wait for a copy of it to put in a scrap book she started the day I met her in March 2008. I had to go through 17 years of searching, a notarized form from me, my adopted parents, and my bio mom before I could get what most Americans can get with a simple request. The only identifying information was bio mom's last name. She wanted to find me but didn't know how. Something needs to be done for those who really want to be united. It's definitely discrimination to with hold our OBC's in my opinion...and very wrong.
As an adoptee who has been searching for over twenty years with no success having my original birth certificate would help me tremendously. I do not have my Birthmother's name nor do I know anything about her or any of my Birthfamily. I can't wait for the day when Joe Roberts(speaker of the house in NJ) sees the light & lets me have my identity. I shouldn't have to wait for him to allow us to have our say or our birth certificates. I am a citizen of this country & I as an adoptee, should have the same rights as everyone else. I shouldn't have to keep jumping
thru hoops to have my identity. I am 50 old & have been searching for over 20 years. Not knowing who I am or where I came from has caused me alot of pain & anguish throughout my life. It's just not fair!
My current birth certificate is WRONG!
My adopted parents are listed on my "Record of Birth" as having given birth to me. If they didn't tell me I was adopted, legally I would have no way of knowing I was adopted. My doctor, possible future adopted parents, lawyer or anyone viewing my record would have no way of knowing either.
My amended Birth Certificate is a lie.
Please find a new way to record births and adoptions of all children on one form. (including , sperm, egg, embryo and ovary transplant transfers/donations/adoptions)
Everyone deserves to know where they got their DNA, for many reasons.
WHAT ARE THEY HIDING IN OUR SEALED RECORDS????
The fact that I am a illegit bastard and this fake form is a way of hiding it?? It's 2009 WHO CARES!!!!
This fact should be writ large: Records are NOT sealed upon relinquishment.
For those who still think that birth parents are in hiding from their children, please note that many measures (Oregon contact preference forms for instance) show that up to 95% of first parents WANT contact with the children they relinquished. This is why Open Adoption is now the NORM - because relinquishing parents are insisting upon it.
Also note that even if you are in blissful reunion with your first parents - you still have NO RIGHT to your original birth certificate under most state laws.
That's interesting how the NCFA fights against adoptee rights. Why do they support the birth mothers that gave their children up over the rights of the children they adopted? I would be devastated if my adoptive mother worked against me by lobbying to have my birth certificate remain sealed. What kind of parent would lobby in favour of discrimination against their own child?
Thanks for speaking about this issue.
www.PeachNeitherHereNorThere.blogspot.com
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