No matter which side of the argument you might be on - no matter how you feel about the rights of children to know who their natural parents are - this case will be of interest to many of us in the adoption community. According to an article in the April 26, 2006 edition of Detroit News a 17-year boy is suing to know who his birth-father is. You can read the article in it’s entirety at http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060428/METRO/604280331/1003

The law suit was filed in Macomb County Circuit Court to force the natural mother to reveal the identity of his biological father to the 17 year old. Apparently, two years ago the 17 year old learned that the man who helped raise him wasn’t his real father. Now, this man, who is his legal father is involved in a law suit that ultimately, in my opinion determine the rights adoptees have to know the identity of their parents.
The teen clearly has a desire to know his family genetic history and that is what the case centers around. The attorney for the teen states in the article that the natural mother “owes her son this information” and acknowledges that he could find no legal precedent that would compel her to provide the information. He is also stated in the article as saying “I’ve checked all over the county and I can’t find anything.” Maybe he should check TN! Those fighting for adoptee’s rights in TN several years ago won a court battle that came about after legislation was passed that provide adoptees with a copy of their original birth certificates.

As an adoptee myself, I think that anything that can be done to push the agenda of opening adoption records to adoptees is great. At the minimum, it makes the point of how many people are hungering for this information and will do just about anything to find out.

Society has changed through the years in regards to the adoption process. Today the number of open ad semi open adoptions outweighs closed adoptions. It takes a great deal of trust and the willingness for all triad members involved to face their fears in any form of open adoption. The adoption process has come along way through the years yet it has been slow. The same will happen with access to the original birth certificates and adoption records for those who are from the closed adoption era. When society realizes that this is our given right and the adoptive parents and the natural parents of the closed adoption era can come together as a whole then there will be change. The same thing goes for adoptee rights….we all have to face our fears and trust in one another.