5th Circuit hears arguments in case of two fathers seeking birth certificate for adopted child

Nola.com ^ | October 7, 2009 | Laura Maggi

[Ebenezer]

The state's [Louisiana's] Department of Vital Statistics cannot be forced to provide a birth certificate listing two men as the parents of of a Louisiana-born boy adopted by a gay couple in New York, a lawyer with the state's attorney general argued Wednesday morning to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kyle Duncan, head of the attorney general's appellate division, argued before a three-judge panel that because Louisiana law does not allow an unmarried couple to jointly adopt a child, the state registrar cannot be forced to recognize an out-of-state adoption of that sort in a new birth certificate. The state Legislature recently reaffirmed that legal position.

At the end of last year, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey ruled that this position by the state violates the constitutional rights of the adoptive parents and the child, who was born in Shreveport in 2005 and adopted in April 2006. Because Louisiana provides new birth certificates for Louisiana-born children adopted outside the state -- listing the names of the adoptive parents -- Zainey concluded that it must provide the same document for this family as well.

[Ebenezer]

Pelican State ping

[Vaquero]

adopted? not a butt baby??

[KarlInOhio]

Although I feel sympathy for adopted children, am I the only one who thinks that birth certificates should be about the birth and biological parents only and have nothing to do with adoption? That would avoid a lot of problems with most of the social issues which people try to latch onto the certificate with the possible exception of surogate motherhood (one genetic mother with a different woman bearing the baby).

[jagusafr]

What amazes me is that people think that putting non-factual information on an official document somehow makes it true. Of course, this is the same mindset that says if a surgeon changes the plumbing on a person, that person somehow becomes the opposite sex. A mutilated male will never be anything more or less than a mutilated male. Ditto for the “addadicktome”.

Colonel, USAFR

[bahblahbah]

The names of adoptive parents shouldn’t be put on birth certificates...

[Ebenezer]

I agree, as long as “adoptive parents” means homosexual/lesbian couples who have no right to the institution of marriage as ordained by God.

[Ebenezer]

If a court of law recognizes the parenthood of a married heterosexual couple over a child through a decree of adoption, the child’s birth certificate should reflect that legal recognition. Once a child is adopted, the birth parents (if still alive) are out of the picture.

[newfreep]

But does it relate to a BC in Hawaii - that beautiful country ruled by King Obozo?

[jagusafr]

We have a baseline disagreement: what you suggest is, to me, rewriting history. Facts, as they say, are stubborn things. Changing facts to “protect” a child is, to my way of thinking, disingenuous and dishonest, no matter the motivation.

Colonel, USAFR

[Trillian]

It must be fun to pretend..