The Honorable __________
Washington House of Representatives
Dear _________:
I am writing as the adoptive parent of 12 children, six of them adopted with special needs, in support of HB 2810/SB 6496, a measure giving adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates. Also an author and professional in the adoption field, I commend Washington state legislators for considering the rights of adopted Americans. In this country, our tradition has been to support the best interests of the child in all adoption proceedings. We owe adoptees no less consideration to their interests when they become adults.
Opponents to birth certificate access argue that the "promise of privacy" given to birth parents will be violated if adult adoptees receive accurate records of their birth. The truth is that birth parents have not been promised secrecy, have not wanted secrecy, and have no constitutional right to keep their identities "private" from their children--findings upheld in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decisions in Doe vs. Sundquist, a court case revolving around this very issue.
In actual practice, the identities of birth parents are routinely available to adoptive parents. Adoption petitions, hospital records we are given, social work and nursing records, and other documents passed from state and private agencies to foster parents and on to we adoptive parents often identify birth parents by name. Often we also find our children's birth parents' social security numbers and addresses in our children's records. To defend against wrongful adoption lawsuits, adoption agencies and facilitators must disclose so much to adoptive parents that any so-called "promise" of withholding identifying information about birth parents can only be a myth.
Adoption professionals and adoption groups, in the majority, support adoptee access to the original birth certificate. In my new book, In Whose Best Interests? Ethics in American Adoption (in press, Greenwood), I reported results of a 1994 study I conducted of the country's 50 state licensors of adoption agencies and 23 professional, adoption-relate or child welfare associations. My findings showed that the majority (62%) said that adult adoptees should be given access to their original birth certificates, supporting the idea that the professinal ethics of confidentiality and client self-determination can be observed without conflict in adoption practice.
My findings were similar to those of others who have researched professional attitudes toward open records, showing that the value of supporting client self-determination (in the case of the adult adoptee wanting his original birth certificate) and that of observing confidentiality (of the birth parents) need not conflict or be resolved through the American practice of sealing of adoption records. Most other nations operationalize the confidentiality of adoption records in much the same way that medical records are safeguarded in the United States. Such records can be released to and by those to whom they belong, thus supporting the ethic of confidentiality while also respecting that of client self-determination.
Opponents to adult adoptee access to the original birth certificate also say that such access promotes abortion. Kansas, my neighbor to the north, has always given adult adoptees access to their birth certificates. Abortion rates in Kansas have been lower than in neighboring states having closed records. The United Kingdom (including Scotland and Wales) and New South Wales, Australia experienced declines in abortion rates after they gave adult adoptees access to their birth certificates. Statistics from the governments of these countries were accepted as testimony in Doe v. Sundquist before the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and resulted in Tennessee's open records law being upheld. Thus, those who support the unborn child's right to live ought also to support the adult adoptee's right to have his or her own honest and unadulterated birth certificate.
The majority of adoptive parents support adult adoptee access to the original birth certificate:
Having worked recently with Washington state adoptive parents adopting waiting children in your state and others, I am keenly interested in contributing to every effort that supports adoptive families. I believe that HB 2810/SB 6496 is a bill that ultimately supports adoptive families because it gives adoptees rights that the non-adopted have always had, removing a stigmatizing barrier that has historically only been applied to American adoptees. We adoptive parents and our children want to be regarded and treated like everybody else: like real families, for that is what we are.
HB 2810/SB 6496 is a measure that acts in the best interests of adopted children and adopted adults--the very people we say we want to serve. I hope you will join me in supporting adoptee access to their own records.
Sincerely,
L. Anne Babb, Ph.D.
North American Council on Adoptable Children
National Adoption Assistance, Training,
Resource, and Information Network
(NAATRIN-OK)
OK Tel. 405-329-9294
OK FAX. 405-329-9294
US Tel. 800-470-6665
US FAX. 612-644-9848
[ Prev ] [ Up ] [ Open 98 Home Page ] [ Next ]