Melissa Hranicka
RDG 029
PAT 10 adoption Controversies
May 10, 2015
Jane Nast, President of the American Adoption Congress, wrote an opinion for The CQ Researcher (1999) arguing for the records of adopted children to be unsealed. She supports her opinion using her 20 years of personal experience working with parents and children involved in adoption. Her feelings are that by leaving the records sealed society is denying adoptive children the ability to find out things about themselves that may cause irreparable harm. Such things as hereditary medical conditions and social history like drug addiction or alcoholism that if known could be treated and possibly cured and by not knowing this, will go untreated for many generations. She also argues that this is information …show more content…
Carrying a child and giving birth to a child knowing that you are going to put it up for adoption is a very traumatic and life altering decision for a woman. Most women do so unselfishly to offer their child a better life than they believe they can provide. They sign a legal agreement that gives up their legal rights as a parent but also provides them the right of privacy. To make a decision to unseal all adoption birth records would be a violation of their constitutional right to privacy. This point is being argued in the Oregon court case Measure 58. Some women who gave their children up for adoption want to remain anonymous. They say “the children they gave up for adoption years ago have no right to barge into their lives unannounced and without permission.” An alternate angle that has not been discussed much is how the adopted parents would feel if the birth parents came looking for their children that they gave up. Some parents “are terrified that access to birth records will enable birth parents to arrive on the scene and steal the affections of their
RDG 029
PAT 10 adoption Controversies
May 10, 2015
Jane Nast, President of the American Adoption Congress, wrote an opinion for The CQ Researcher (1999) arguing for the records of adopted children to be unsealed. She supports her opinion using her 20 years of personal experience working with parents and children involved in adoption. Her feelings are that by leaving the records sealed society is denying adoptive children the ability to find out things about themselves that may cause irreparable harm. Such things as hereditary medical conditions and social history like drug addiction or alcoholism that if known could be treated and possibly cured and by not knowing this, will go untreated for many generations. She also argues that this is information …show more content…
Carrying a child and giving birth to a child knowing that you are going to put it up for adoption is a very traumatic and life altering decision for a woman. Most women do so unselfishly to offer their child a better life than they believe they can provide. They sign a legal agreement that gives up their legal rights as a parent but also provides them the right of privacy. To make a decision to unseal all adoption birth records would be a violation of their constitutional right to privacy. This point is being argued in the Oregon court case Measure 58. Some women who gave their children up for adoption want to remain anonymous. They say “the children they gave up for adoption years ago have no right to barge into their lives unannounced and without permission.” An alternate angle that has not been discussed much is how the adopted parents would feel if the birth parents came looking for their children that they gave up. Some parents “are terrified that access to birth records will enable birth parents to arrive on the scene and steal the affections of their