Did You Know it's Illegal for Adoptees to Obtain Their Own Birth Certificate?

Question

In most States of the US it is illegal for an adult adoptee to go to the Vital Records office like any other citizen and ask for a copy of their own original birth certificate. This includes step-parent adoptions

This is clearly a violation of their fundemental human rights, civil rights, the UN Convention of the rights of the child, their constitutional rights . . . . . .

The USA is the only country in the world that holds onto these outdated laws, which were originally to protect adoptees from the stigma of illegitimacy and unwed mothers from the stigma they faced. It also protected the adoptive parents from people bribing them because it was considered shameful to have a 'b*****d' in the family and it was kept very secret. These factors are irrelevant today.

Do you think these laws should be changed and Adoptees rights returned to be equal to the rights of every other citizen?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

Real mothers have no right to not let their babies know who they are-THAT IS CHILD ABUSE AND TOTAL NEGLECT TO THE INFANT'S MENTAL HEALTH IN ALL STAGES OF HIS OR HER LIFE. THE UNITED STATES IS A LIAR  A THIEF AND A HYPOCTITE TO THINK IT HAS A RIGHT TO PLAY GOD AND NOT TELL PEOPLE WHO THEIR PARENTS ARE-AMERICA IS THE  WORST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD BECAUSE IT SAYS IT'S PEOPLE ARE FREE AND THAT IS A LIE-ADOPTEES ARE NOT FREE TODAY LIKE THE SLAVES WERE NOT FREE BEFORE LINCOLN DID THE RIGHT THING AND SET THEM FREE. WE ADOPTEES DESERVE TO BE SET FREE TOO AND KNOW OUR PARENTS NAMES-ALL CLOSED RECORD ADOPTEES IN THE USA ARE THE MOST ABUSED AND DISRESPECTED PEOPLE IN THIS WHOLE COUNTRY. AMERICA IS A BULLY!!!!!

Answer 3

Great question! Without fail, whenever I have mentioned that adoptees can't get their birth certificates to anyone who is not torched by adoption, no one can believe it.

The general public supports open records. But NCFA is a huge beast to tame.

I know that I will get my records. I absolutely do. It's just a matter of time.

Answer 4

Anyone who has any involvement within the adoption triad knows this but ask around to those you work with or have no association with adoption and they are completely unaware of this practice.  This practice needs to come to the attention of the majority of our population not the minority.  Keep speaking out, become involved in some way.  The smallest action such as explaining the laws in this country to someone who is unaware is a positive move forward.  Slowly many states are adopting better practice with regards to adoption records but it is very very slow and in some cases the search for our original records can be costly.  Many states require a person searching to use an intermediary service to search.  This is not cheap and can run between $500 and $1000 or more.

Keep informing people and get involved!!!!!!

Answer 5

yep.  I know.

and even though my birthmother has filed a release, they STILL won't give me my records.  Why?

Because my birthfather, (who probably didn't come home from Vietnam) hasn't filed a release.  So even though the man is dead, I cannot have my original documents. WHICH I NEED.

It will cost thousands of dollars to track this man down, because so many people are more interested in his privacy, than my rights.

HIS "right to privacy" ended the moment his pants hit the floor!

Did you know that there IS no constitutionally guaranteed "right to privacy?" for ANYONE... not just birthparents.  Go ahead.  READ the US Constitution.  I guaranty you will not find a "right to privacy" anywhere in it.

Answer 6

Yes - I think the laws in the US are outrageous and grossly out of date.

Australian adoptees have had open access to their birth certificates since the early 90's.

But obviously we're a much more advanced nation than good 'ole USA!! (tongue placed firmly in cheek!!!)

And fancy that - in OZ - no one has spontaneously combusted from knowing their mothers - or their children.

Shame on all those that still push for closed records.

And how ironic that most of those that fight to keep them closed - have full access to their own.

To them - I say - grow a heart!

Answer 7

What would be the intent behind obtaining your original birth certificate? If you have a certificate saying that you are a citizen of that country then you can get all the same identification as anyone else. Seems to me that the sole purpose of you wanting that certificate is for the names on it. So that you can find out who your parents are and perhaps take some action towards finding them.

That is, of course, a perfectly reasonable desire - but what you seem to be forgetting is that one of the main reasons why people can give up their children to a better home without being 'identified' is that many of them would either terminate the pregnancy (these days) or murder the child (these days and in the past) rather than 'risk' being found out.

Hard as it is to swallow, there are plenty of mothers who have thrown away, drowned, abandoned their babies. Anonymous adoption was the original 'other option'. You may hate the circumstances under which you have to live; but you DO live.

Burnedby: comparing not being able to know your birth parents names to being an African in slavery is Incredibly ignorant and disrespectful. You obviously don't have a CLUE what their lives were like - stick to things you know something about next time you decide to go raving like a bloody lunatic!

Answer 8

Yes I do think these laws are a disservice, primarily to adoptees, but really to everyone.

I too am met with incredulity when I tell someone outside the world of adoption that adoptees cannot access their records the same way anyone else can.  It's almost as though people think I don't know what I'm talking about.  But yes, it really is against the law!

It's been overlooked by many for a loooonnng time.  It's time to address this injustice.  It serves no one but people looking to fake a 'miracle of adoption'.

Answer 9

Yeap and it stinks!!!

My daughter will never be able to obtain a real version of her BC.  The copy I have is an amended copy and that is full of errors and omissions and lies.   It just makes me sick.

I am in a state that just buried her OBC for life and she will NEVER be able to get it.

Answer 10

I believe, there should be a separate document for "adoptees", the purpose of that law is to maintain the privacy of the biological parents.

There should be a birth certificate which omits the names.

Edit- which laws protect the privacy of the biological parents? that is the information on the birth certificate that creates the restrictions, there was debate on this during my childhood, and that was the reason given...if your parents gave you up for adoption you do not necessarily have the right to know who your parents are.

Unfortunately I suspect this is exactly the information you are looking for, and there for you take exception to my statement.

"needing protection from their own children"? they need protection from that time in their lives, they just aren't those people any more.

Answer 11

Its hard to read what you write when you put it in all caps like that burnedbyadoption, please stop becuz I want to read what you write.

I want to change the law, how do we do it?

Answer 12

You are absolutely correct Heather,

When an adoption takes place in most U.S. states today, the original record of birth is sealed.  For the last 50 years or so, the adoptee has been left with a government-issued forged document.  The information on it is erroneous and/or blank.

Many people in the general public are under the false assumption that when adoptees turn 18, their correct birth information is automatically returned to them.  This is untrue.  Even in what is known today as "open" adoptions, the adoptee's birth record remains sealed permanently, regardless of both sets of parents' wishes.

This practice is unwanted, unnecessary, and outdated!

Although many states are in the process of rectifying this situation to a more humane approach similar to what the rest of the world has, there is still a powerful U.S.adoption industry (along with some, not all, adopters)  with a vested interest in making big bucks and sweeping facts under the rug & keeping them there forever.

Records of birth are public information.  Every other citizen has a right to their own information.  That information does not belong to parents to decide what to do with it.  

Who has the greater right to information pertaining to any adult?  Obviously the person who's birth is recorded there.  What any person does with their information is irrelevant  & not in conflict with their right to have it.  Potential relationships, regardless of who they are between, always need to be mutual, and should be decided between the individuals.  

Furthermore, people in this country are assumed capable of managing all of their own affairs.  They can enter into relationships and contracts with one another.  They have full rights unless they are deemed incompetent by some reason.   (underage, criminal, intoxication, insanity, etc.)  

Apparently, the U.S. government has created a new category just for adoptees.  It deems adult adoptees incompetent by reason of adoption!  To assume they cannot manage their own lives is patronizing and wrong.

Fortunately, children born out of wedlock are no longer stigmatized as being illegitimate.  Society has evolved to accept single parenthood and the children born out of wedlock.  The laws should evolve as well.  Laws that were once created in an attempt to protect children from stigma have today turned against them.  It was never the child's fault anyways.  They should not be made to suffer permanently.  Adoptees are not somebody's shameful little secret.  They are humans worthy of the same rights that every other tax-paying, law-abiding citizen has.

In conclusion, adult adoptees should regain their rights to their birth certificates because it is wrong to seal them, it is not necessary, it is unfair, it's discriminatory, and it is outdated.  I see the tide changing as more & more people see this issue for what it really is - a human right's issue.

Thanks for asking,

julie

reunited adoptee

rights activist

Answer 13

Thats the NCFA right there in effect, they've implanted that idea into society, "birthparents" have no promise to confidentiality in any law. Nor could that "promise" be upheld in courts as you can see via our history "Maine, Oregon, New Hampshire, Alabama" all becoming open records states in the past 10 years. Alaska and Kansas never sealed the adoptees records.

Something you can all do is get involved in the Adoptee Rights Demonstration next year in New Orleans on July 22, 2008. At Lafayette Park 10 blocks from the Marion Convention Center.

By protesting our sealed records at the annual state legislators convention, we will have a chance to meet, talk with our delegates and talk about the violation being done to us by sealing our records. We will begin the end of our fight for our records! This is the beginning, this is where it will be done!! This will be the begining to the unsealing of the rest of our records!! This is your chance to be part of the biggest expression of adoptee rights in our nations history :)

http://www.AdopteeRights.net

Answer 14

You're not so much asking a question as looking for affirmation of something you already believe.  Pathetic.

Answer 15

Actually, I am embarrassed to admit that I did not know that it is illegal.  I truly thought that it was legal but "Mission Impossible" because OBCs were somehow lost in the system when they were replaced by adoption certificates.  Well, that gets me thinking - how can an adoption certificate be called a "birth" certificate when there was not a birth to the adoptive parents?  Oh wait!  I forgot - there is no logic in adoption.

Actually, the "b*****d" factor is still relevant for the child.  There is an unadopted b*****d baby in my family.  There are a lot of people who are not very nice about it and we dread it when she goes to school.  In fact, that is why we no longer go to church (damned hypocrites).

Yes - these laws must be changed.  I feel like such a dope.

Answer 16

HM:

why is it pathetic that Heather would want her own records?

That seems meanspirited and uncalled for.

Why are you so mean HM?

Answer 17

My step son has been adopted out, ( by a whole different family), that is cruel and is a violation fo the basic human right to know who you are!! Can`t believe it?? Sad, adoptee`s should have the right to know who their parents were.

Answer 18

Thanks for posting this.  I meet people all the time who don't know about sealed records.  When I explain it to them, they universally declare the amended birth certificate a stupid practice.  (The only birth certificate I'm allowed to see is a fake.  It says two infertile people gave birth to me.)  

Of course the laws need changing.

[sits back and waits for standard hoo hah about first mother's "privacy rights" to begin--whoops too late!]

Answer 19

Luckly i was born in Kansas. I didn't even have to go to the office. they sent it to me in the mail with i think a $10-$50 dollar fee (not sure about the price because i had my son not too long after i got mine so it's kind of a blur). I wish i could say that it helped me. it help a little because now i know i'm half korean but i don't know what the other half of me is. I just assume i'm black. I do look indian though.

It takes an act of congress to get your birth certificate here in NC. you have to go through the courts and everything. it's sad. although my birth cirtificate didn't help my search it gave me a connection to my history that i can't really explain. it was kind of like wow i know something about me. i have a document that lets me know what house i lived in when my mother carried me in her stomach and how old she was. it was a small stepping stone but i felt like i had jumped from one mountain to another.

I think its very important for adoptees to get their birth cirtificate. i may still have issues but it was nice to take that breath.