Reunion lover that I am, when I write about open records I often yammer on about how many opportunities reunions provide for healing. I talk about how much my reunion has helped me to find some peace and resolution. I discuss all the ins and outs of reunions and talk about various possible outcomes.

However, adoptees’ rights’ activists make a very valid point when the subject of open records comes up. Open records are not just about reunion. In fact, people are reuniting all over the place without open records. Reunions happen often because for some there is a burning desire to reconnect and they find ways to do so.

The point that I need reminders about from adoptees’ rights’ advocates is this: Open records debates should not focus on reunions, but rights. Not all adoptees want or need reunions. Many adoptees believe that they have a right to their records whether they want to seek a reunion or not. Having access to your own birth records is not a revolutionary idea. Many believe that it should be a fundamental right to see your own birth and adoption records.

Some adoptees feel as though they are treated like second class citizens to begin with, denying them access to their own records only reinforces that idea. We pretend that records remain sealed to “protect birthmothers’ privacy.” Does anyone really buy that excuse? Probably a few people are fooled into believing that, but hard to imagine that many really could.

Open records means that adoptees at the age of majority, usually 18 or 21 years old gains access to their original birth certificates and/or adoption records. Having open records does not mean that every soul walking the earth will gain access to adoption records, only the adoptees who want their records.

Some adoptees bitterly resent the notion that they should receive anything less that unrestricted access to their adoption and/or birth records. Why should they need their mother’s permission to know who she is? Why should they be required by a state to be scrutinized and counseled before receiving information about their birth parents? Why should adoptees be treated as though they are still children who don’t know what’s best for themselves? Do we believe that adoptees are so tactless, insensitive and lacking in judgment that once armed with the name of their birth parents that they are liable to do awful things?



Further Reading:

Tracking Down Birthparents


Open Records for Adult Adoptees.

Photo by Jan Baker 2007