Now the Op-Ed in the NY times was printed November 29, 2005 and in addition to telling her story she admits to how she lied, committed fraud, and stole private records of her adoption to try to increase the odds that her son would get the correct medical treatment. Carol felt so entitled to do whatever she had to get that information. It is probably true that many parents would do what she did and I guess I personally was a little taken back by this admittance of guilt.

We live in a society where the are tow political parties that argue that that abortion should be illegal or abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. As Americans you have the right to choose whether you think abortion should be legal or medically justified or oppose it for the sole purpose of ending a pregnancy. Now, this has been one of the reasons advocates have argued against for years. Some believe that if adoption records are opened that there will be more abortions. However, if society is serious about not wanting abortions then besides having contraceptives accessible, teaching abstinence, and the stigma of premarital sex and abortions that still exists today, the adoption laws and access to records need to change on a federal level.

Some have suggested parental DNA but doesn’t that seem unfair for several reasons? The burden would fall on the natural mothers along with the lack of involvement on the natural fathers part. Another suggestion I recently received was that natural parents and adoptees should have a communications system for request to initiate contact and to exchange medical information directly with one another through a social security number escrow. I think the theory of this suggestion is based on the service that the Social Security Administration has that if you send them a stamped letter and a person’s name and their social security number they would forward it. This theory would work on the same concept.

The article in the NY Times can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/opinion/29barbieri.html?ex=1290920400&en=49c7d998069cee76&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss