Adoptees and Birth Records

In almost all states, adoption records have been closed and sealed away from the adoptees, adopted parents and the birth parents. Some states have fought against this to open the birth certificates to all parties involved. New Jersey, for example, passed a bill through legislation allowing the adoptee the right to obtain their birth certificate and contact their birth parents. This bill was eventually vetoed due to consequences that could occur if an adoptee wanted to contact their parents, and they did not want to meet. The parties cannot receive identifying information and can only obtain such information called non-identifying information from adoption records. This means only health and medical and family background information is provided. Identifying information, which is not provided to the parties of the adoption, includes names, addresses and phone numbers. There are only a few methods in which the state can release identifying information, such as a mutual consent. “A mutual consent registry is a means for individuals directly involved in adoptions to indicate their willingness or unwillingness to have their identifying information disclosed” (Child Welfare Information Gateway 4). The registry requires the consent of either one birth parent and adopted person over the age of 18 or 21, or both parents if the adopted person is still a minor. Adopted children should have access to their birth records because they deserve the right to have physical evidence showing them who and where they came from opposed from somebody telling them.

Sealed birth records have only been known to exist around the mid 20th century. Records were once sealed from the public attention and then later from the parties involved in the records. The...

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...edges paternity or a birth sibling who is 18 or older can also access identifying formation. With this information they can come into contact with their birth parents and figure out where and who they came from if they both agree. However, the state will always have the birth certificate sealed away shut somewhere in a office cabinet and can be viewed or touched. Adopted children deserve the right to hold something physical to see for themselves who and where they came from instead a person from one of the adoption parties telling them.

Works Cited

Welfare Information Gateway. (2012). Access to adoption records. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau. Web. 22 Nov. 2013

Pam Hasegawa, Barbara Busharis. "NACAC | Adoptalk Articles & Publications." NACAC | Adoptalk Articles & Publications. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.