Arguments for Open Adoption Records Essays -- Law

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 institution of adoption itself and positively affect all those involved in it. I am not one of those people who did not know I was adopted. I have always known. My parents are good and loving, and provided me with all that I needed as a child. However, just because they were very good parents did not decrease the inherent need I had to look at a face that is similar to my own. Open adoption records would provide the tools for people to learn indispensable information that is provided to all other Americans beside themselves. Sealed records violate adoptee’s rights as human beings. Adoptees are discriminated against like no other group in this country. Records should be opened so that we have the same rights as those who are raised in their biological families. Open records in no way threaten the institution of adoption. There will always be mothers and fathers who are willing to chose a different path by giving their child away, just as there will always be those parents who wish to provi... ...2002): p271-310. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. Fleming, Caroline B. "The open-records debate: balancing the interests of birth parents and adult adoptees." William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law Spring (2005): 461-480. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. Freundlich, Madelyn. For the Records: Restoring a Legal Right for Adult Adoptees. Evan B. Don Aldson Adoption Institute. New York, NY. (November 2007). www. Adoptioninstitute.org. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. Sorosky, A.D., Baran, A., & Pannor, R. The Adoption Triangle. New York: Doubleday. (1984). Print. Whittaker Hughes, Susan. â€Å"The only Americans legally prohibited from knowing who their birth parents are: a rejection of privacy rights as a bar to adult adoptees' access to original birth and adoption records.† Cleveland State Law Review. 55.3 (Summer 2007): p429-461. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.