IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON
FOR THE COUNTY OF MARION
JANE DOES 1, 2, 3 and 4, |
| No.
Plaintiffs, |
| AFFIDAVIT OF JANE DOE 1
v. |
|
|
THE STATE OF OREGON; JOHN A. |
KITZHABER, Governor of Oregon; |
and EDWARD JOHNSON, State |
Registrar of the Center for Health |
Statistics in Oregon, |
|
Defendants. |
___________________________________|
STATE OF OREGON )
) ss.
County of Multnomah )
I, JANE DOE 1, being first duly sworn, hereby depose and say:
1. I am an adult citizen and resident of Oregon. I am 58 years of age. I make this Affidavit based on my own personal knowredge.
2. In December 1961, when I was 21 years of age, I gave birth to a female child ("the child") who was born out of wedlock. I immediately placed that child for adoption. The delivery of that child and the decision to place the child for adoption occurred at a hospital ("the hospital") in Portland, Oregon.
3. Both immediately before and after the delivery and adoption of the child, I lived with my mother and brother at my mother's home in Oregon. Both my mother and brother knew of the delivery and adoption.
4. At the time of the birth of the child, I had one other child (age 3), but I was not married at the time of the birth and had been divorced. My former husband was not the father of the child, and he was not aware of the birth or adoption of the child.
5. Subsequent to the birth of the child, I have been married twice. I married my second husband approximately three years after the birth of the child, and neither that husband nor my present husband knows of the birth of that child or that she was placed for adoption by me.
6. Prior to the birth of the child in December 1961, I spoke with the physician who was treating me at the hospital. That physician informed me that he had a number of patients who were interested in adopting a child and that if I chose to place the child for adoption, he could assure me that he would find an adoptive couple who would love the child. I also spoke with a Catholic nun at the hospital about placing the child for adoption, and that nun counseled and prayed with me about adoption.
7. Both the treating physician and the nun assured me that my decision to place the child for adoption would be kept in confidence and that, pursuant to Oregon law, my identity and all other identifying information about me would be kept confidential and would remain sealed. I was counseled by the Catholic nun to place my "trust in the Lord" and that, based upon the promises of confidentiality and privacy, I could go on and make a new life for myself.
8. Paramount to my decision to place the child for adoption were the promises that were made to me by my treating physician and the nun at the hospital about confidentiality and privacy, promises that I was told were consistent with Oregon law in effect at the time of the adoption.
9. Within a very short time after the birth of the child, I was in the office of the attorney for the adoptive parents in order to sign the necessary papers for the adoption of the child. The adoptive parents' attorney also emphasized that my identity and the identity of the adoptive parents and the child would be kept confidential from each other.
10. I did not see the child after her birth and was only informed by the hospital staff that she was healthy. I have never made any effort to learn the child's identity or to locate the child, and I am not aware of any efforts to learn about or to locate me by either the child or the child's adoptive parents. I did not meet and I have never met the adoptive parents, and I do not know their names or the child's adopted name.
11. 1 presently have four children; ages 19, 32, 35 and 41, and none of them knows that I gave birth to and placed the child for adoption, and neither my present husband nor either of my previous husbands knows about that birth or adoption. It is for that reason that I do not want the child, who would now be 36 years old, to know of my identity or to contact me because to do so might cause my family to know of that intimate and life-changing decision that I made decades ago and that I have kept a secret from them.
12. If Measure No. 58 is enacted into law, I understand that the child could, without any exceptions, immediately obtain a copy of her original birth certificate containing my name and address at the time of the birth. The possibility of that information being disclosed is greatly disturbing to me, and it surely will cause me severe mental anguish, embarrassment and humiliation. I also consider it a significant invasion of my privacy. It also will cause me anguish and renewed feelings of shame for what occurred decades ago. I am frightened if the law goes into effect because it would cause me and my family to suffer embarrassment, humiliation and mental anguish. Having kept this secret from my family and community these many years, disclosure of confidential information would be worse for me now than it would have been at the time that the events occurred in 1961. It also will break the promises of confidentiality and privacy that I was given at the time that I made the difficult and important decision in 1961.
13. The events surrounding the child's birth and my decision to place her for adoption in 1961 were among the most difficult and emotionally painful I have ever experienced in my life. If Measure No. 58 is enacted into law, I will be forced to re-live that emotional trauma, particularly if the child is able to obtain confidential, identifying information about me. Moreover, if that confidential information is released, I will have absolutely no control over its use and publication to other persons, including my husband and children.
14. Therefore, I urge this Court to enjoin the enforcement of Measure No. 58 and to preserve inviolate my privacy rights and protect my anonymity and the confidentiality promised me.
|S| Jane Doe 1
Jane Doe 1
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of November, 1998.
|S| Sandra J, Gotthardt
Notary Public for Oregon
My commission expires: 5-6-2000