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The Open Records Debate - Part 2 - The Argument in Support

Part 2: In Support of Open Records

More of this Feature • Part 1: The Issue • Part 3: Against • Part 4: Compromise     Related Resources • Access to Information by State • Open Records Resources • Sealed Records: The Last Stigma • Suckerpunch • Openness in Adoption • Who Decides for Me and My Child? • Why Adoptees Search    Elsewhere on the Web • Bastard Nation • National Council for Adoption

The most vocal proponent of open records is the adoptees' rights group, Bastard Nation (BN). While some may take issue with the name, this activist group — composed of adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, and others who support open records — has been fearless in its efforts to right what it sees as a great, and very basic, wrong.

The group's mission statement makes clear its stand for the equal right of unrestricted access to original birth records for all adult adoptees, without vetoes or intermediaries. BN says,

"... all adoptees should be able to exercise their right to obtain the original government documents of their births. At issue is not search and reunion, but the constitutional rights of millions of American citizens. To continue to abrogate these rights is to perpetuate the stigmatization of illegitimacy and adoption, and the relegation of an entire class of citizens to second-class status."

The group also offers documentation, references, and opinions to support its claims that:

• birthparent privacy is not an open records issue,
• open records are not a threat to adoptive parents,
• instances of abortion will not increase with open records, and others.

BN Founding Foundling, Marley Greiner, talks about the issues of secrecy and shame. "I am perfectly content to have been adopted by my parents," she says. "What I am angry about, and I believe nearly all adoptees are angry about, is the secrecy = shame context of the closed adoption system."

Award-winning Web personality and adoptee, Denise Castellucci, is an outspoken supporter of open records. She says, "...the civil rights of adult adoptees are being violated by having their birth records sealed to them... and this denies us basic information all other citizens in this country enjoy."

Adoptee Marge Garfield puts a different light on the issue. "The desire to know is so fundamental," she says, "that many adoptees go through life studying strangers for shared physical characteristics." Her statement echoes the sentiment expressed by Judge Wade S. Weatherford, Jr., of the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court, SC, who said in a ruling on an adoptee's petition to gain access to adoption records, "Mankind is possessed of no greater urge than to try to understand the age-old question: 'Who am I?' 'Why am I?'... Those emotions and anxieties that generate our thirst to know the past are not superficial and whimsical. They are real and they are 'good cause' under the law of man and God."

Others speak out

Once a very low-profile community, more and more is being heard from and about members of the adoption experience. Additional support for open records can be found in the references below.

Adoptees:

• Rhonda Kirschman, who maintains the NC RegDay Web site, as she writes in "Inaccurate Notions Regarding Closed Records."

Adoption Professionals:

• Vincenette Scheppler, M.S.W., adoptive parent and author of "The Adoption Dilemma", whose professional opinons are stated in her testimony before the NY State Commission on Child Welfare.
• Marcy Axness examines the need for reform in her article, "In The Best Interests of Whom..."
  and looks at the role of the Uniform Adoption Act, citing the Baby Richard case.

Adoptive Parents:

• An independent study of adoptive parents published by Cornell University shows an overwhelming majority of adoptive parents polled supports open records.
• Valerie Wilcox, author and adoptive parent who conducted the search for her daughters' birthmothers herself, says, "Every human being has a right to know who they are and where they come from," adding, "For me, as an adoptive mother, I do not feel threatened about it. The more people that love your children, the better off they will be."

Birthmothers:

• Alana Miller, a Sunflower Birthmom, says "yes" to open records in an newspaper interview.
• Birthmother Lorraine Dusky says, "..when the key argument against open records is that women like myself don't want to be reunited with our children, I want to scream. We don't want 'protection' from our own flesh and blood."

Organizations:

• Concerned United Birthparents, as outlined in its position statement regarding Adoption Reform.
• The Presbyterian General Assembly approved support for truth in adoption by unanimous vote.

Part 1: Overview: The Issue
Part 3: Voices Against Open Records
Part 4: Voices For Compromise

© Nancy Ashe

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