Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, “who is that”? Adopted children ask themselves this every day. Being adopted gives most children a chance at a better life than if their biological parents had chosen to try to raise them. This is what happened with me; my parents were about 16 or so when I was born. My “father”, whom I only call that for lack of a better word, had already left my “mother”, and her choices were probably try to raise me, have an abortion (thank god she didn’t), or have me adopted. She choose adoption, and gave me a chance for a life I wouldn’t have been able with a single, teenage parent. My real parents, who adopted me, were having a hard time having a child, so they choose adoption. This is my story, and I am very thankful that things worked out the way they did. The only downside to adoption is the confusion and frustration that not knowing your biological “parents” has. I think that if an adopted person wishes to know who they are, they should be able to find out. Adopted children should be able to contact their biological “parents” through an amendment to the current adoption privacy laws.
Adoption is a great thing in that it gives people who can’t raise a child a different option than abortion. But after a while, as an adopted child you begin to wonder who your biological parents are, why they had you adopted, and many other questions that would take too long to list. You feel like you don’t know who you are. Most people would just think, just find out. First off, it’s not that easy. There is a lot of steps to go through for that, and after that, you still might not be able to find anything, because your biological parents wish to remain anonymous. If there was an amendment to the current privacy laws, adoptees could figure out who they are a lot more easily than having to go through courts and agencies. It needs to happen, and one of the worst parts is that there are people trying to make it happen but, as said by Lorraine Dusky, “we get so far, and then the bill gets lost in the morass when the session comes to an end.” Lorraine is a biological parent of an adopted child and is an activist in trying to get open adoption records in states that don’t have them. It surprised me to learn that she was on the other side, not an adoptee but a biological mother, because the whole point of the laws against open adoption records is to protect people like hers rights. And as she says it, she is only one of the many biological parents fighting for their adopted children’s rights. So if both sides are against it, why hasn’t there been a change yet?
Another reason why adoption laws should be amended is that they aren’t just. It just plain isn’t fair that adoptees don’t get to know who they are just so that their biological parents can remain anonymous. Why should the parent’s rights be more important than the child’s? Why can’t an adoptee at least easily view their medical history, or at least one with identity revealing information of the biological parents redacted? A lot of these questions are ones that, if you look at them, seem to be common sense. The mere fact that there are laws making getting information of the biological parents a long and hard process astounds me. Maybe it’s my own opinion on it speaking for me, but to me, these laws don’t make any sense. They just make life harder and more confusing for an adoptee.
There are people out there who say that by making adoption records open you would simply steer people thinking about adoption to abortion. They say this because some biological parents wish to remain anonymous. This is not true, and there are studies to show it. Data from states that have open adoption records show that abortions do not increase, and that adoptions do not decrease. Making adoption records open wouldn’t hurt anyone, if anything it would help to clear away the feelings of confusion and frustration that adoptees have.
After learning more about adoption record laws I learned something that at first gave me hope, but then after I looked into it more it dashed my hopes. There are some states that do have open adoption records, although I’m not sure that they should be called “open”. Even though it is possible to acquire information, it is very difficult. I could not understand the entire process, it is just that complicated. It involves going to court and getting a document or reason for and agency of some sort to find or contact the biological parents, usually only if a genetically transferable disease may be involved. Even if you do everything correctly you still might not get much information if your biological parents deny it. This is just another unfair part of the law against open adoption records.
Everything I’ve said in this paper has been said many times before, by many people. Why then are so many people still dragging their feet on this issue? It is clear that people all around want it, and there is no clear opposing party against open adoption records. It is something that needs to be done, simply to get it over with, so that future generations won’t have to deal with it’s general unfairness. If this is simply a price that must be payed for being adopted instead of aborted, then I will take it. But if there is no real reason why there shouldn’t be open adoption records, which there isn’t, then those laws have to change. Adoption record laws must be amended so that adoptees can know how they are just like anyone else in the world.
Adoption is a great thing in that it gives people who can’t raise a child a different option than abortion. But after a while, as an adopted child you begin to wonder who your biological parents are, why they had you adopted, and many other questions that would take too long to list. You feel like you don’t know who you are. Most people would just think, just find out. First off, it’s not that easy. There is a lot of steps to go through for that, and after that, you still might not be able to find anything, because your biological parents wish to remain anonymous. If there was an amendment to the current privacy laws, adoptees could figure out who they are a lot more easily than having to go through courts and agencies. It needs to happen, and one of the worst parts is that there are people trying to make it happen but, as said by Lorraine Dusky, “we get so far, and then the bill gets lost in the morass when the session comes to an end.” Lorraine is a biological parent of an adopted child and is an activist in trying to get open adoption records in states that don’t have them. It surprised me to learn that she was on the other side, not an adoptee but a biological mother, because the whole point of the laws against open adoption records is to protect people like hers rights. And as she says it, she is only one of the many biological parents fighting for their adopted children’s rights. So if both sides are against it, why hasn’t there been a change yet?
Everything I’ve said in this paper has been said many times before, by many people. Why then are so many people still dragging their feet on this issue? It is clear that people all around want it, and there is no clear opposing party against open adoption records. It is something that needs to be done, simply to get it over with, so that future generations won’t have to deal with it’s general unfairness. If this is simply a price that must be payed for being adopted instead of aborted, then I will take it. But if there is no real reason why there shouldn’t be open adoption records, which there isn’t, then those laws have to change. Adoption record laws must be amended so that adoptees can know how they are just like anyone else in the world.