Adoptees and Birth Certificates Essay

May cause different emotions for adopted child as they have the right to know their origins

If the adoption is going to be from another country, where the child is from another race and culture, the adopting parents should get to know about that race and culture before taking care of that child. So while raising this child, they can also teach them about their culture so they won’t be cut out of their original heritage. Because these children are banned from knowing about their culture and customs, it wouldn’t be good to take that away from anyone. So this can be a bad thing about taking in a child from another country, and the process would take up a lot more time and money to do this.

Closed adoptions allow birth parents privacy and to remain unidentified. Closed adoptions can also help birth parents with the grieving process because closed adoptions provide a sense of closure and the ability to move on with their lives. They get a new beginning (“Open”). In an open adoption, the birth parents are involved in the child’s life, which can act as a constant reminder that the child is no longer legally theirs, which can cause more grieving and sadness for the birth parents (Byrd).

When the birth parent give a child up on adoption the adoptive parents have access to the child's health history. By knowing the health history the adoptive parents can prevent any future danger in the child's health. "When the adoptive parent gets access to the child's health records he or she will know if the child was prescribed to any medication, illness or health condition if its genetic or not, records of any hospitalization or operation, allergies and vaccines records" stated by Kids Health (Before you Adopt 1). If the child needs an organ donation but there's no organ donor a blood relative may donate the organ needed to help the child. it may not look like it but an open adoption can save a life.

The sorrowful events that came with opening our adoption proves that if a closed adoption is chosen, it needs to stay that way. Adoptive children need protected from unhealthy lifestyles. Closed adoptions need to remain closed to protect children from experiencing a life they were supposed to be taken away from. Children need to feel loved and should be able to live life as a child instead of fearing situations out of their control. They can contact their biological family if they chose at the legal age, until then closed adoptions should remain just

In the 1960s, adoptees began The Adoption Reform Movement to make sealed adoption records accessible. Before then, traditional or closed adoptions were thought to be the best option for everyone involved in the adoption triangle. This triad consists of the adoptee, adoptive parents, and biological parents. In a closed adoption, the adoptee is not allowed access to medical records and does not know their birth parents. Prior to the reform, people did not consider the ethical or moral problems that would arise from these kind of adoptions. The belief was that sealed records would protect everyone, but this is not the case. As adoptees grew into adults, the demand for more information on their birth parents increased. This led to the debate of whether or not adoptees were entitled to know the identity of their biological parents. The opposition from birth mothers appeared almost immediately after the reform set about. These mothers were not ready to give up their own rights to make the decision between open or closed adoption. Even though biological parents have the ability to choose, adoptees have the right to know their biological parents because of the search process being emotionally damaging, their need to access medical records, and their development as a child.

Many factors are given weight in the decision to allow a child to be adopted such as socio-economic status, marital status, age, health and the ability for a child to integrate in to the perspective parent’s life (The Free Dictionary, n.d.). Within the adoption process there are two primary types: closed adoptions and open adoptions (Family Education, 2016). A closed adoption is where there is no contact between the adopters and the birth parents putting the child up for adoption. Also known as a confidential adoption it is performed through an intermediary who is responsible for all communication such as an attorney (Family Education, 2016). There is also no contact between the adopted child and his or her biological parents later in life without court intervention. The other avenue of adoption perused more commonly now is an open adoption where the adopters and birth parents are in full communication through out the process (Family Education, 2016). Adoption has gone through an evolution where previously closed adoptions were heavily favored; open adoptions are now becoming more common practice. In the United States on five states currently give adoptees uninhibited access to their adoption records (Fair, 2008:

Many children were told that their parents had died or abandoned them, and many never knew where they had been taken from or who their biological families were

Parents deserve the protection from unwanted contact. “unsealing records that birth parents believed were private will force them to relive what many describe as the most painful experience of their lives. They say their objections have been drowned out because the people most affected can't speak for themselves because they don't want to be identified” (Akin, 2014, para. 6). Strong needs for privacy may rely on the birth parents, this also sometimes helping the mother move on. Parents are sometimes unable to hold appropriate relationships or boundaries that are set by adoptive parents. Challenges arise that create decisions to keep the records sealed. The birth parents want little to no contact/information given. Access to original birth records, even if given general information, can help prepare the adoptee for future actions and precautions they must take. “adoptees have the right to know their own medical histories, which could help them prepare for illnesses or genetic diseases in the future.” (Gazette, 2015, para. 14)...”The DSS is authorized to release non-identifying information about biological parents, if the information is available, to children after they turn 18.” (Leader, 2016, para. 10). Giving medical information to adoptees can help them understand their backgrounds and medically related history. These pieces of important medical history can lead them to take safety precautions when given a certain situation. They are knowledgeable to any medical conditions and the risk they hold, these being carried through their biological heredity medical history. Preventive care is administered to counteract any chances to long-term health, this potentially affecting the adoptive family when holding life-threatening conditions and not knowing how to react. Such details play a crucial role when maintaining decisions for the

My mom was adopted as a baby and has always been curious about who her biological parents were and if she had any siblings. Upon receiving her permission, I began some light detective work using the two pieces of information I had: her biological mother’s name, Laverne Heikkila, and that she was from Newberry, Michigan. I took to the internet and was surprised to find that the surname Heikkila was more popular than one would think, but I did find a Laverne Heikkila from Newberry, Michigan on a thread on Ancestery.com. Not expecting much, I posted a message on the thread stating that I was looking for Laverne or any information about her as I believed I could be related to her. I didn’t hear anything back right away and eventually had forgotten

Amaris Elliott-Engel, an American lawyer and legal journalist has a website, ‘Cultivated Compendium’. On the site there is an article titled ‘You’re an Outsider’: Adoptees Push to Open Up Access to Birth Certificates. The piece written by Elliott-Engel, was published by The Connecticut Post, the Danbury News-Times and saved as a pdf file on my desktop with the name ‘article-deluded’.

biological and adoptive parents surface, anyone searching for a baby has good reason for concern (Casey 119).

For those who are a part of the adoption world one of the most hotly debated issues is whether birth records should be open or closed to adoptees. With this issue comes strong feelings on both sides. In most states adoption records are fully sealed and inaccessible, unless the adoptee petitions the court. In 16 states these records are fully or partially available upon request with no court involvement, and also may depend upon when you were born. In a few states records are completely prohibited and the adoptee will never have any access to them. Alaska and Kansas have always made original birth records available.

The necessity of adoption in the world is astounding. Currently, there is an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide (Wingert, vol.151). As of 2007, there were 513,000 children living in foster care within the United States alone (Rousseau 21:14). International adoption in the United States was jumpstarted post World War II as a way of helping those children who were left homeless, after war had taken their parents. Although there are thousands of healthy children awaiting adoption in the United States, several American couples still turn to foreign adoption when seeking potential children. Americans often fail to realize the need for intervention within their own country and their duty to take care of domestic affairs before venturing to

Moreover, there is a strategic interview and background check on those who wish to adopt. We do not let just anyone adopt a child, nor do we go without checking up on his or her history to predict the likelihood of that person being a good candidate for a parent. There are forms to be filled out, house inspection, and an overview of their income to make sure they are suitable to take in and care for this child. According to a study published by the Child Welfare League of America, despite