If You Discovered the Baby You Were Told had Died Was Adopted Out?

Question

Would you have any recourse against the people who deceived you (back in the 1970s)?

Answer 1

Heather,

It could be entirely possible. I am pretty sure it would fall under the category of a Crime Against Humanity. Kidnapping is in this category and has no statute of limitations - especially on an international level. So I think it would be totally possible. There are obviously elements of fraud as well, which could be mitigating circumstances and add more penalties, I would think.

This type of fraud and kidnapping are BOTH felonies in the US. You would need to contact the disctrict attorney in the county where the crime occured.

There would probably also be grounds for a civil suite.

Some helpful information can be found here:

"Informing the mother her baby had died when it had in fact been adopted constitutes fraudulent misrepresentation, unconscionable behaviour, element of conspiracy to defraud, A9 1 taking child with intent to steal, A9 1A, kidnapping, violation of human rights, intent to deprive owner permanently. "

-http://www.angelfire.com/or/originsnsw/o...

You would need a good lawyer who specializes and is very educated in this area - It wouldn't hurt to volunteer to assist with research!

IMO: The guilty parties deserve SEVERE penalties.There is no justice that will ever compensate either the mother or child for this kind of inhumane and.cruel victimization of other human beings. There is a special circle of H*$# for this kind of evil.

You may find these interesting related reading:

http://www.law.uoregon.edu/org/olr/archi...

(legal theory in HTML - it gets interesting around page 23)

http://www.asil.org/ilib/2005/06/ilib050...

http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/researc...

Answer 2

isnt this a lifetime movie?

Answer 3

Not only is this reprehensible, but also a clear case of fraud.

However, the statute of limitations has probably long passed.

A civil case might be a possibility, but again, I imagine you would need solid proof, meaning more than just a first moms word.

Answer 4

Oh, thats awful! I cannot believe someone would do that! That is so, so awful. I would see a solicitor about where you stand, that is an absolutely disgusting thing to do to anyone! I would hate the people who deceived me.

Good luck with tracing your child x

Answer 5

I can only give you my experience and that is that,after years of searching,I finally received a letter forwarded to me by a third party from my natural mother.In it she told me that she was told at the time of my birth that I had died and she had no intention of further contact with me as it would be too traumatic for her and that she had never even told her family of this particular time in her life.I find it impossible to understand her reasoning as I too have given a child up and have also had a stillborn son.I just wish that she would change her attitude as it has made me feel even less of a person than I did before as my daughter doesn't want anything to do with me either.WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES HER REFUSE TO ADMIT MY EXISTENCE?I don't think that I will ever come to terms with this.If I was in her shoes I know I would do my utmost to get in contact.Just for the record I have never made a secret of the fact that I have given a baby up and do not believe that any person who has been adopted should be hidden like a dark secret.

Answer 6

This type of thing happened to Native Americans quite often.  Sometimes it was trickery like you suggest.  And sometimes they would just take the babies away.  Now there is the Indian Child Welfare Act that prevents these things.  If the people you are talking about are Native American then I would suggest contacting ICWA.

Answer 7

I would be absolutely livid, because it means i missed out on my childs life...

I would want to meet and be a part of my childs life...

I would also sue their asses...

Answer 8

Very interesting question.  My first reaction is that I would think it would be considered "kidnapping" and I would look to press charges as such.  However, who do you press charges against?  Do the APs know that it was an adoption thru deception?  If so, then yes, I would press charges against them.  If they do not, then I'd be looking to press charges against the agency for sure.  

Any unethical adoption (such as this) needs to have attention brought to it so that it does not happen to someone else.  It is the children who suffer the most - and this needs to stop.  If an adoption is done unethically or illegally, then something has to be done to stop it from happening in the future.

Answer 9

Yes, you can sue them or their estate civilly and can get the doctor or nurse's license revoked.   I actually know one person who did this successfully and even won an award from the hospital because there was information in the old files that other employees were in on this.  Nearly always, the mother was either indigent or a single mom-to-be.  The mother is usually told that it is 'best not to see the dead baby.'

BTW, she became suspicious when she wrote for the old hospital records (I think 20 years had passed) to find out if there was a reason for the baby's death identified only to find out that the baby was perfectly healthy!  Typically, those records get thrown away by the perpetrators, but apparently they were sloppy or the billing dept. would get suspicious when there were not accompanying bills for the nursery care.

Ultimately, it was found that the a-parents knew it was an illegal adoption, but investigators didn't think they knew the baby had been stolen.  The child was already an adult by the time this discovery was made.  BTW, unlike clinics and doctor's offices, hospital records are often not discarded, although they can be misfiled, and damaged by the elements.  Even if the hospital is closed, you can write the state health dept. and ask where the records were moved.

What you can do is sometimes limited by your state. Most states have no statute of limitations on kidnapping, but some do and I think Federal law is 5 years.

Answer 10

No.  The person is in their thirties, what would be the point?

Answer 11

I would be searching out a good lawyer and fast.

The fact that this was so rampant is disgusting. These people were well aware of how wrong their actions were and they should be held accountable.

Answer 12

i am sure you could sue the agency for angish etc if it was them who lied to you. Now if a family member did like in August Rush you can sue your dad but that is about it. The agency (true or not) can say they did not know and they thought you signed.

Answer 13

I agree that there needs to be some written evidence.

Otherwise it would be the mother's word [thirty years after the fact] against any number of people who may even be deceased by now.  In a lawsuit, discovery rules will normally get you correspondence and reports - but I can see the agency claiming the records are sealed and they can't produce them.  That's what Louise Wise Services tried for years in the Juman case.  

It's an uphill battle because of the attitudes against first mothers - "the child was placed in a loving home..." - no harm, no foul, eh?

This is the same attitude you see in international adoptions - kidnapping, coercion, fraud against third world mothers doesn't count because you're giving their child "a better life".

Good luck to you and your mom if you decide to go that route!

Answer 14

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... For years you thought you had a child that died and to find out they are alive...ofcourse your happy thier alive but why would someone do such a thing!

Answer 15

I cannot imagine not having recourse, especially if you just found out.  This is highly illegal.  There would probably be criminal charges also, because they are technically still involved in a federal offense of kidnapping.

I would believe that they could be prosecuted criminally as well as in civil court, however, once the mother found out, I'd say her chances would get slimmer as time passed.  I'm not sure what the statute of limitations would be.