IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON
FOR THE COUNTY OF MARION
JANE DOES 1, 2, 3 and 4, |
| No.
Plaintiffs, |
| AFFIDAVIT OF JANE DOE 2
v. |
|
|
THE STATE OF OREGON; JOHN A. |
KITZHABER, Governor of Oregon; |
and EDWARD JOHNSON, State |
Registrar of the Center for Health |
Statistics in Oregon, |
|
Defendants. |
___________________________________|
STATE OF OREGON )
) ss.
County of Multnomah )
I, JANE DOE 2, being first duly sworn hereby depose and say:
1. I am an adult citizen and resident of Oregon. I am 33 years of age. I make this Affidavit based on my own personal knowledge.
2. In September 1983. when I was 18 years of age, I became pregnant out of wedlock. I gave birth to a female child ("the child") in June 1984 at a hospital in Bend, Oregon.
3. Approximately four months after I became pregnant with the child, I contacted Boys and Girls Aid Society of Oregon ("the Agency"), a licensed adoption agency in Oregon, about placing the child for adoption because I wanted the child to have a stable environment and loving parents. I was working and living in Oregon with my parents at the time of the pregnancy.
4 In the counseling that I received with the Agency, I was assured that, under Oregon law, my identity would remain confidential from the adoptive parents and the child after the adoption unless there was mutual consent by all concerned parties to the release of that information. Those promises and expectations of confidentiality and privacy played a significant role in my decision to place the child for adoption, which I did through the Agency in June 1984, immediately after the child was born.
5. I am extremely troubled and concerned about Measure No. 58 being enacted into law because I consider it a breach of the promises of confidentiality and privacy that were made to me. At the time of my decision to place the child for adoption, I was informed by the Agency about the procedures under Oregon law if the child and I would ever want to have contact. It was explained to me that, under Oregon law, there was a procedure whereby both the child and I would both have to agree that there would be contact and release of any confidential information. I have never attempted to use those procedures to learn, and I have never learned, either the identity or name of the child since the adoption or the name or identities of the adoptive parents.
6. Attached as an exhibit to this Affidavit is a redacted copy of a "Confidential Information Form" that I was required to complete and submit to the Agency when the adoption took place. That "Confidential Information Form" completed and signed by me expressly provided that "ALL INFORMATION GIVEN TN THIS FORM WILL BE HELD IN STRICT CONFIDENCE" and that "NO ONE LISTED ABOVE WILL BE CONTACTED WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND CONSENT." (Emphasis in original) I believe that if Measure No.58 becomes law and goes into effect, those express promises of confidentiality and privacy wilt be breached.
7. If confidential information about me and my identity were to become known to the child or her adoptive parents, it would be upsetting to me because of the assurances that I was given at the time that I decided to and did place the child for adoption that there were procedures, under Oregon law, based on mutual consent that would be involved if such information was to be disclosed and also that counseling would be involved. I feel that I was guaranteed confidentiality and privacy when I made the decision to place the child for adoption and that I was told that I would have total control over any contact by the child or the adoptive parents.
8. My decision to place the child for adoption was among the most difficult and emotionally painful decisions that I have ever experienced in my life. That decision was based on promises of confidentiality and privacy that I believe would be breached if Measure No. 58 is enacted into law.
|S| Jane Doe 2
Jane Doe 2
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of November, 1998.
|S| Sandra J, Gotthardt
Notary Public for Oregon
My commission expires: 5-6-2000