Do adoptees have a right to privacy?

Question

Do family members have the right to an adoptee's information?

Ethically, shouldn't adoptees be the one's to lead a search for info? And isn't it their right to share or not share what they find? Are children entitled to this info?

My brother, as I have shared before, found some horrifying information about his bio dad. He has chosen not to share this info with his children. Isn't this his right?

I'm not necessarily talking legal rights as I know this is sketchy...but more about a parent's right to safehold sensitive information about their own life.

Just curious how others feel about this.

Answer 1

There are things that i do not know about my own family and I grew up with them. Example: there was another baby either between my brother and myself or after me. I do not know what happened to that child. I can guess but no one knows for sure. If there is something about a blood relative that doesn't have a direct affect on a child I see no reason to communicate it. All families have skeletons, like the speeding ticket, or uncle so & so likes womens clothes, or aunt bla bla bla had an affair. If it doesn't directly affect a childs health then why do you need to tell everything? If it is hereditary or life threatening that's different. I am willing to bet you do not know all there is to know about every family member you have. Just like they don't know everything about you.

Answer 2

I believe any and all information that adoptive parents receive about their child, or that the child has gotten/found, belongs to the adoptee, and only the adoptee.  I do not believe it is an adoptive parents right to share information about their child's birth family, reasons for being placed for adoption, health condition at placement, drug screening results, environment of birth, etc. whether a domestic adoption or international adoption.  This is private information.  It is not to "brag" about, illicit sympathy with, use for shock value or cudos.  This is one of my pet peeves.  Some  adoptive parents are inappropriate telling others their child's "story" or sharing that they were exposed to drugs, or that the birthfather was incarcerated, etc.  Or that their child's birthmother was married, rich and had four other children.  Whatever it is, that information belongs to the adoptee.  If he or she chooses to share that information with anyone, it is up to them.  Respect, privacy and honor.

Answer 3

Plenty of people, I'm sure, hold onto secrets.  However, family members they deserve honesty from one another, particularly if it is something that affects and/or is about more than just the individual holding the information.  If a family member is flat out asking, then it is all the more reason to give honest information.  Holding such information is certainly allowable, but it is selfish.

In our society, we have free association.  There are no "rules" which others must follow as to who should be seeking whom.  Why on earth should families of adoption be held to a different standard?  

Should I stop working on my family tree (blood) which includes people in generation following mine, just because I happened to have been adopted?

On a personal note, knowing that my natural family spent years looking for me was extremely healing.  Perhaps, then, it must have some sort of ethical merit.

ETA:

As an adoptee, I am entitled to the very same privacy rights as everyone else -- no more and no less.  However, since the state sees fit to seal my birth record from adopted persons, but not from any other citizens, adopted citizens' privacy rights are breached all the time.  There is a Constitutional right to personal freedom from government intrusion (Roe v Wade.)  The state withholding my birth record from me is such an intrusion of my privacy rights.

Answer 4

Every citizen should have EQUAL rights.  In a democratic country everyone has 'freedom of association'.  Adoption is not the witness protection program

Answer 5

Technically no they don't have the right to privacy.  Your brother however should be honest and share with his children when they are age appropriate.

Answer 6

Details about someone's life can hardly be forcibly released information...my parents still don't know about the speeding ticket I got in college!

If your brother doesn't want to reveal information, that is a shame.  Maybe it is timing...his kids aren't ready for the graphic nature of the information he discovered.  But, his kids should have the opportunity to discover their own answers...and this is one of the oft-ignored areas of adoption:  the effects of withholding information can be multi-generational!