Dear Legislator,
I'm an adoptive parent writing in support of SB 6496 and HB 2810 which would allow adult adoptees to obtain their original birth certificate upon request.
The principal arguments I've heard in favor of closed records say this is to protect birth parents' privacy, but this doesn't make much sense to me. I know that these birth records are not sealed when parental rights are terminated, but only after an adoptive placement is finalized. All the parents whose children are left in the child protective system for years have no such "privacy protection". One would think that destitute and/or abusive parents whose children are removed to foster care would have need of at least as much privacy protection as those who relinquished children to adoption because of the imposed shame of unwed motherhood.
I believe this is pious rationalizing to paint over a less noble motive. No, it seems to be a well-known secret that the real reason for closing birth records is at the behest of adoptive parents: to salve the natural but irrational fears of adoptive parents about the original parents, and to help prop up the myth that adoptive parents are the only parents a child ever had, or deserved to have.
Well, I don't want any part of this myth. This is a bad reason to have such a law. The closed records system creates more problems for me as a parent than it "solves" for me. Not only do I need to explain to my child as she grows up that the story of her being in our family is different than most other people's, I also have to explain why the state seems to feel there is a compelling need to bury the basic truths about my daughter, such as where, when, and to whom she was born, as some kind of shameful secrets, and to treat her differently than other people for her entire life, even after she is an adult in all other respects.
Help me and other adoptive parents out here! I urge your support of HB 2810 and SB
Although I'm not now a Washington state resident, my grandpartents lived there and I enjoyed some very happy times in Tacoma Washington when I was a young child.
Sincerely,
Kevin McCarty
Cupertino, CA
[ Prev ] [ Up ] [ Open 98 Home Page ] [ Next ]