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Monday, November 12, 2007

Law - "Report urges open access to records for adult adoptees"

Bonnie Miller Rubin of the Chicago Tribune writes today in a lengthy story that begins:

Few issues are more heatedly debated in child-welfare circles than whether adopted citizens should have access to their original birth certificates and other legal documents.

In most states, including Illinois, adoptees are legally prohibited from obtaining those records, based on the belief that such practices best serve both the birth parents who relinquished their children and their new families.

But a report scheduled to be released Monday by the Evan B. Donaldson Institute challenges those assumptions, suggesting that all adult adoptees should have unfettered access to their court files and that barring them from such personal information raises significant civil rights concerns.

Currently, only eight states fully open such records, reflecting the nation's long tradition of shrouding adoption in secrecy. The report, considered the most exhaustive on the topic to date, examined individual states' experiences in restoring access and analyzed current research and policy.

It concludes that the rest of the nation should move to share such information -- and the sooner, the better.

Moreover, there is no evidence that the states that do allow such transparency have caused undue hardship to biological parents' lives by revealing their names.

"Good public policy is not based on anecdote or stereotypes but on real knowledge and research," said Adam Pertman, executive director of the New York-based independent non-profit organization. "We hope by providing that research, we can inform the national conversation, leading to laws that are responsible and humane."

In states that have amended their statutes, none of the negative consequences predicted by opponents has come to pass, the study concluded. Chief among the concerns: Without the assurance of anonymity, pregnant women would be more likely to choose abortion.

"It's just not accurate, it doesn't happen," Pertman said. "Sealed records are a symbol of a time when adoption was an embarrassment ... and that time has gone by."

Here is the link to the Evan B. Donaldson Institute website; as of this writing the new report does not yet appear to have been posted.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 12, 2007 09:19 AM
Posted to General Law Related