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I have been following the laws surrounding original birth certificates. It makes me really happy that adoptees are learning their histories. I would love to have my original birth certificate. I can see both sides of the argument though. People assume if birth parents lose their anonymity then adoption rates will drop. They are probably right.
As an adoptee, I think we have a right to know who and where we came from. I think we have a responsibility to respect our birth family's wishes if they don't want contact, but I think it's important to know our heritage and medical background.
Being a birth mother must be incredibly difficult. I can't imagine what it would be like to build a life for yourself after placing a child for adoption only to have your past come back to haunt you. I look at my life with my birth mother in it, and I can't imagine my life without her in it. I wouldn't want to.
People are protesting and writing to legislators trying to gain access to original birth certificates in their states. I support the cause, I do. I firmly believe we have a legal right to that document. I can't help but wonder though if any of it really matters.
DNA testing is making huge strides in the search and reunion effort. I definitely feel like the people who are arguing to keep anonymity are fighting a losing battle. I wonder if they even realize that. The truth always comes out in the end. Not only were they never guaranteed secrecy, but eventually someone will use DNA to find them. We should be combating their need to stay hidden with DNA.
Eventually all the states will be open, and I will just be glad that I was able to be a part of it.
For my argument on adoptee rights:
https://www.google.com/amp/adoption.com/never-stop...
Annaleece Merrill
I think it's not right that adoptees don't have rights to their own information. Sure, birth parents shouldn't be forced to have contact and neither should adoptees, that wouldn't be fair. But most of the birth mothers I know do want those records unsealed so that they can reunite with their birth c...
AF
For sure! I know some people argue that adoptees get medical info in their non-identifying info. Mine said "no known illnesses, either mental or physical, in the family." That was 35 years ago. A lot can happen medically on that amount of time.