ELMIRA Star-Gazette,April 3, 2008
Letter: Adoptees deserve to have rights to records
April 3, 2008
StoryChat Post Comment
Under legislation pending in the state Senate and Assembly, adoptees will have the same right to their birth records and early health histories as every other person has always had. Currently, eight other states offer this right, and several others are considering it. Adoption records in Kansas and Alaska have never been sealed.
New York began sealing adoption records in the mid-1930s to protect adoptive parents from possible interference from biological parents. Contrary to popular assumption, however, there has never been a legal guarantee of secrecy offered to birth parents who have given up their children for adoption.
Since the 1930s, social perceptions and medical research have evolved to the point where most professionals in the field of adoption agree that open adoption and background information is to the benefit of all concerned. For example, one of the first things a doctor needs to know is a patient's medical and psychiatric history. Currently, that potentially life-saving information is obtainable only by court order and at considerable cost to the individual. Unfortunately it is usually not sought because of those deterrents, to a patient's serious disadvantage.
The proposed adoptee rights legislation strikes a balance between an adopted person's right to know and the confidentiality concerns of biological parents.
With the political fray in Albany this year, these bills need the attention and support of your elected officials. Please contact your state senator urging support of Bill S235 and your assemblyman on Bill A2277.
JOYCE BAHR
President
New York Statewide Adoption Reform
New York, N.Y.
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1 comment:
The fact of the matter is --- that the family/juvenile courts routinely deny petitions filed by adult adoptees, even for health reasons. It's discrimination of the worst kind. It's obvious sealed records protect the judges, court officers, private adoption lawyers and private adoption agencies and others who benefit financially from adoption. Adults who were adopted in NY State should have their rights restored. That is the right to request their original birth certificate like any other non-adopted citizen!
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