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Essay about Arguments for Open Adoption Records

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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.

As an adoptee, I feel that all adoption records should be open. I believe that this can only strengthen the quality of the …show more content…

Adoption in America been ruled by a stigma. For much too long, those who could not have children, unwed mothers, and the children born out of wedlock have been shamed and humiliated. I believe it is time for these supposedly disgraceful ideas to go by the wayside, and we begin hold onto the idea that all families are beautiful things, no matter how they are composed or how they came about. There is no shame in being an infertile couple, an unwed mother, or a child with unwed parents.

Two facets comprise this issue: the social and the legal. Proposed social impacts of open records are the increase or decrease of abortions and adoptions, birth parents right to privacy, the forcing of unwanted relationships with adoptee children, and the undermining of the integrity of the adoptive family. Proposed legal impacts of open records are the violation of privacy to the family, right of reproductive privacy, and a birth a mother’s equal rights with a father’s (because of more birth mother’s names being provided in comparison to father’s names).

Those in opposition to open records say that it will increase abortions and decrease adoption because abortion is confidential and adoption is not. However, it has been determined that this is not the case. In fact, there is a strong correlation between open records, decreased abortions and increased adoptions. It appears, that in states that opened adoption records

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