Myths and History Earlier this week I read a New York Times opinion piece. The piece, written by Steve Inskeep, is about adoption, adoptees, birth records and the law. I usually hold my breath a bit when I start reading these sorts of articles. Sometimes, they include references to “pitting” non-existent birth parent privacy rights…
Reunions happen all the time in spite of sealed record laws. Mine certainly did! Adoptees’ ability to access their own birth certificates is a matter of equitable rights, not reunion. It is independent of whether or not the parties involved select to have contact with one another. One’s adoption status should not remove a right…
In November of 2001, two months after I was reunited with my biological family, the Superior Court of California, Contra Costa County (where I was born), informed me that I needed to file a court petition in order to obtain a copy of my birth certificate. That document is sealed because I was adopted when…
Some argue that there is a right to “birthparent privacy” under the law. However, the law as written proves to say quite the opposite. Birth records don’t seal when birth parents give up or lose their parental rights. Changed Legislation, Lost Rights Sealed birth certificates are an issue of an entire group of citizens, adopted…