Adoptees Fight for Birth-Records Bill (Should adoptees access original birth certificates?)

AUGUSTA ‹ Darren Clukey told state lawmakers Tuesday that learning his birth mother's identity has allowed him to answer a question at the doctor's office that most people take for granted: "What's your family medical history?"

"Knowing my history is my right and denying this right to others is wrong," said the 33-year-old Yarmouth resident, who was born in Biddeford and adopted as an infant.

Clukey testified before the Legislature's Judiciary Committee in favor of a proposed law that would allow Maine-born adoptees - age 18 or older - to get a copy of their original birth certificates.

Adoptees say the original records - which bear the names of their birth mothers and sometimes their birth fathers - are the key to their true identities and their medical heritage, including susceptibility to genetic illnesses.

But opponents of the bill told the panel that letting adoptees learn their biological parents' names would violate the privacy of birth mothers who gave up their children for adoption with the understanding that their identities would remain secret.

Daniel Walker, an Augusta lawyer representing the National Council for Adoption in Alexandria, Va., told the committee that the medical issue "is kind of a red herring in the bill. . . . The real issue here is identification."

Opponents want to amend the bill to say that birth parents must give consent before adoptees can see the records.

However, adoptees contend that's unrealistic because the state doesn't have the resources to search for birth parents. They say the bill contains protections for birth parents. It would allow them to fill out a form stating whether they want children to contact them directly or through an intermediary.

If they specify no contact, they would be required to fill out a medical history form.

The Judiciary Committee listened to about five hours of debate on the emotional issue. The committee made no decision, but members peppered the speakers with questions about how to balance the rights of adoptees against those of birth mothers.

Since the 1950s, Maine law has sealed adoption records unless opened by a court order. Clukey said he was lucky because a York County probate judge agreed to let him see his records, but he and others said Tuesday that other judges have denied such requests.

Many Maine adoptees have birth certificates that bear only their adoptive parents' names. One adoptive parent, Martha Naber of Waterville, who spoke in favor of the bill, said she has always has found it strange that her adopted daughter's birth certificate says Naber was in Bath on Oct. 15, 1980, giving birth to the girl.

Proponents of the bill outnumbered opponents about two to one at the hearing. Many supporters were affiliated with Access 2006, a group of adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents and other supporters working to get the bill passed this year.

The legislation is modeled on a law that took effect in New Hampshire on Jan. 1, 2005. So far, 786 adoptees in that state have asked for their birth records and only 12 birth parents have said they don't want contact, according to testimony Tuesday.

A handful of other states around the country, including Oregon, have similar laws.

Rep. Gerald Davis, R-Falmouth, the bill's lead sponsor, told the committee that knowing skin cancer runs in his family has helped him and his brothers protect themselves. "Genetic information saves lives," he said. He called the bill a matter "of common sense . . . as well as civil rights."

Rep. James Hamper, R-Oxford, said adoptees should have the same rights as non-adopted people to get their birth certificates.

He said his 18-year-old adopted son recently was reunited with his twin brother, who remained with their biological mother instead of being given up for adoption. Hamper's son, the adopted twin, doesn't have access to his original birth certificate, but his brother does.

But Rep. Charles Crosby, D-Topsham, read the panel a letter he said came from a birth mother constituent who doesn't want her identity known. He said the woman wants lawmakers to protect the privacy she said she was promised.

Joining Crosby in speaking against the bill were representatives from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and St. Andre Home Inc. of Biddeford, an adoption agency founded by Roman Catholic nuns.

They said they support adoptees' need to have access to their medical records, and also reunification of adoptees and birth parents if both parties agree.

"What we do not agree with is free access to original birth certificates by adoptees without the expressed permission of the birth mother in advance," said Marc Mutty, a spokesman for the diocese.

Elizabeth Pierce of Freeport, an adult adoptee, opposes the bill, saying there are other ways for adoptees to get medical information. Pierce, a physician, said she was able to get her medical background from her biological mother through an intermediary about 10 years ago.

"I am so grateful to her for giving me life, in no way do I want to intrude on her life," Pierce said.

Something I learned tonight:

Orphan Trains

Refers to the era of 1854-1929 when an estimated 150,000 homeless children were placed on trains and taken to rural sites concentrated in the Midwest and West in search of homes where the children could live and work. The children ranged in age from as young as about one year old to age 16 or 17.

Limited follow-ups of the children revealed that then, as now, the children who adapted the most readily were usually the younger children and the older teenagers faced the greatest difficulty in adjusting to a radically different environment.

These homeless children came primarily from large cities on the Eastern Seaboard, such as New York City. Most were poor, and many had been involved with minor or serious infractions of the law. Many also had siblings and were separated from them for life as a result of the move. Yet most of the children made successful new lives for themselves, leaving behind them severe poverty and desolation.

The Orphan Train era was initiated by social welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace of the Children's Aid Society in New York. Brace urged that children of paupers not be left to languish in large crowded institutions but instead be given an opportunity to live and work in a family home

CUT

Catholic Church and other groups; for example, the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and the New York Foundling Hospital were both actively involved in the Orphan Train movement.

The children were accompanied on the train by adults, often Catholic nuns, who rode with the children to their destinations and destinies.

The movement was also known as the "Placing Out" program and preceded adoption as we know it today.

The children left the train at each stop and were chosen or not chosen by people who came to the station to see them. In some cases, the match was made ahead of time, and the couple would present a number to the children's chaperone who would match the number to the child wearing the same number.

In other cases, the matches were far more informal. One train rider reported that her adoptive mother wanted a brunette girl, but the child with the right number refused to leave the nun. The red-haired and fair-skinned 18-month-old train rider happened to look at the woman and say, "Mama." She was chosen.

Some of the Orphan Train riders were ultimately adopted, while others were not. Some were "indentured," which means their labor was sold to waiting farmers, but many were taken in as one of the family and raised as if they had been adopted, whether or not an adoption was ever legitimized.

Brace was opposed to indenturing children because it didn't work and too often the children ran away. Instead, he believed the children should be treated with dignity and respect, and they would respond admirably.

Wrote Brace in 1859 in his book The Best Method of Disposing of Our Pauper and Vagrant Children,

The children of the poor are not essentially different from the children of the rich; the same principles which influence the good or evil development of every child in comfortable circumstances, will affect, in greater or less degree, the child of poverty. Sympathy and hope are as inspiring to the ignorant girl, as to the educated; steady occupation is as necessary for the street-boy, as the boy of a wealthy house; indifference is as chilling to the one class, as to the other; the prospect of success is as stimulating to the young vagrant, as to the student in college.

The Orphan Train riders continued their treks west until about 1929. Although today the idea of sending homeless children to strangers in other states may sound cruel and inhuman, it must be remembered that diseases abounded in the almshouses and orphanages and that yesterday's orphan trains were not all that different from today's "Adoption Fairs," wherein caseworkers bring adoptable children to a picnic or party that is attended by previously-approved prospective adoptive parents.

There were critics of Brace and the New York Aid Society. Brace's organization did not attempt religious matching, and often children of Catholic immigrants were placed in Protestant homes. Concern over this practice grew and ultimately resulted in attempts to place children in homes with the same religious background as their parents.

Critics also said Brace did insufficient investigations of the foster or adoptive homes and little follow-up or documentation.

http://encyclopedia.adoption.com/entry/Orphan-Train/266/1.html

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