The Pros And Cons Of Open Adoption Records

Adoption records should be open to give adoptees the ability to know where they come from. Various state laws create many paths or roadblocks to determining biological parental information. Knowledge is more important than privacy. It is procedure for a new birth certificate(or ABC) to be issued when a child is adopted. The adoptee’s new name appears, along with the names of the adoptive parents. The fact of the adoption, the name of the birth parents and the birth name of the adoptee are excluded from the certificate. At that time the original birth certificate(or OBC) is sealed and becomes unavailable to the triad. Conservatives believe the records should be sealed forever, the practice of allowing the records to be opened would prove to help many adoptees discover their biological background and culture. An adopted child might need medical information from his/her biological parents. Before active lobbying efforts of adoptive parents organizations began in the 1940’s, a majority of states maintained open adoption record policies. Those who proposed the sealed records felt it would protect the adoptive family and the adoptee from feeling the shame of bastardy and believed that it served the best interest of all parties involved in the adoption. They failed to account for the fact that adoptees grow up and that may not be
is about 20 years behind other countries in opening adoption records. Common Law countries, such as England and Australia, tend to have biases favoring families and privacy. From the 1970s onward these biases have resulted in leaning toward open records. The United States should follow suit with other countries and open adoption records in order to catch up with the rest of the world. The practice of closed adoption changed gradually across each of the states and territories in Australia from the late 1970s through the 80s and 90s. 84% in 2010-11 of local adoptions (but not intercountry adoptions) are "open” in