Sealed Adoption Records Survey

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I created this to help in collecting data and as an easier and anonymous way to share your views.

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Sealed Adoption Records Survey

A Possible First Step

At the very least I would like to see it made possible for birth parents who now want the adoption records unsealed will be able to open them on their end, then if the adoptee ever seeks them they can be legally given at that time.  If all parties involved are on the same page, these walls should be dissolved.

An Injustice

This is how I feel about the sealed adoption laws problem.  I understand that not everyone feels this way but the purpose of this blog is to give a voice to those that need one.
I am proposing new legislation that will allow equal access to sealed records for all those the records relate to.

An Injustice

Sealed Adoption Records Denied to Adoptees

- Why is the child the one without rights?

I understand that as an infant or a ward decisions must be made for children and hopefully all involved are decent human beings who will make the choices they feel are in the best interest of the child at this time, But surely once that child is a recognized adult, their rights to their own birth information should be restored to them.

- My main argument is why are the rights of some adults not honored equally, in this case being the birth parents' rights vs the now adult child's rights.  Why can some parties have rights/access to/or the ability to block information about and involving another individual when that information is equally theirs if not more so?  It is about them physically and belongs to them ethically.  In most of these cases, the adults at the time the records were sealed also gave up their rights to and over the child, even furthering the case for the adoptee, once they are an adult themselves, should have at least equal rights to this information.

- Reasons

Of course the reasons why an adoptee seeks out this information are varied & diverse but in my opinion the reason has no bearing at all as this information belongs as much to them as a non adopted child's birth certificate belongs to them.  That being said, I recognize that reasons matter to those that do not understand or do not yet agree.

Following are two examples of common and important reasons:  

Practical:

Medical History - Knowing can save time avoiding unnecessary testing, thus saving money for the individual, the insurance companies, and the tax payers.  Informed decision making in an individual's life can alter the course of a disease and a future that may not otherwise have been available.  Knowing provides a peace of mind and security that does not exist otherwise and that knowledge can now be passed onto their own children.  These are privileges taken for granted by the general population that an adoptee is denied.

Emotional:

Who am I and Where do I come from?

Both of these are questions that we have all had and can empathize with.  

Nurture VS Nature

Whether we have had a good experience or bad with our adoptive family, our environment is not the entire story of us.  In a society that so encourages embracing our culture, our nationality, our heritage, our ancestry and our traditions, how can we deny that knowledge from someone who seeks it when we have the power to give it, and arguably the moral obligation to.  How do you think a person feels not having this to cling onto, always the outsider, a welcome guest of the host but with no knowledge of their own home?  It is a natural desire to know your history and these adoptees do not even know themselves yet.  Some feel the need and some don't but it is my argument that they have the right to know.

- A Plea: 

I ask you to put yourself in the position of an adoptee.  You are an innocent, decisions were made for you without your knowledge or ability to affect.  You now live these decisions that others made for you until you are grown.  In many respects, most children have a similar claim for their early life but the glaring difference is rights and knowledge.  Adoptees do not know their heritage and are denied the right to know it.  Why?

 

Physically this information is the story of them.  There is no ethical right to block this from them.  The only reason it can be blocked at all is because they were too small to speak for themselves.  Now they stand on one side of the counter at the records office pleading for their own information while the clerk who has it only feet away denies them access all because others decided when he was too young to speak for himself that he should never have it.  Well he can speak for himself now.

Where is the justice system now to balance this inequality?  Where can he go now to have his side heard and listened to?  I ask again how would you feel if your past was deliberately locked away from you and you had no say in it?

 

Children who grow up with their birth parents as well as adoptees who grow up with their adoptive parents are legally in the charge of these adults.  Once they reach adulthood, they are legally in charge of themselves, the parents' legal control over them is finished.  Why then do the birth parents of adoptees who have had no legal rights over them at all during their youth still have legal control over some of their rights as an adult? 

 

- In Conclusion, the Solution:

It is perfectly reasonable to explain to birth parents that the state can ensure the security of this birth information during the time the child is a minor but it should be held in trust for them to access freely once they are an adult should they so desire.  The birth parents do not own this individual, they do not own his information, what is is and there is no changing that.  Hiding it is a travesty of justice.

I propose that it be mandatory for all birth records to be unsealed for the individual to whom they are about and to whom they belong when and if they so choose to access them after the age of legal adulthood.  And in cases of relevant biological known medical information that this be given mandatorily.  

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Thank you very much for your time.  

From what I can learn about current Utah Law, an adoptee must sue to have their records unsealed, the case must go before a judge, a lawyer is recommended, the adoptee must prove a "justifiable" reason for needing the records, you need money and there is still no guarantee that you will get all or any of the sealed information.

I would appreciate this issue being brought up as a topic for discussion in the next legislative session.  Both sides need to be heard and valued if nothing else.