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Sealed adoption records are the last piece of the wall built around adoption based on stigma.

Continue reading Sealed Records: The Last Stigma

Keeping records sealed is just a way to cover up the shame and fear that is associated with many adoptions. I believe that it is the adoptee's right to know who their birth parents are. Whether or not they choose to search for or locate their birth parents after this is up to them. It is imperative that adoptees have medical information that could be a matter of life and death. I know that in some cases it may be extremely difficult for a birth parent to have a relationship with their child, but the shame and fear can be eased somewhat with being truthful and open with each other.

I believe in adoption only under certain circumstances, but I don't believe in a parent giving up their child because they don't want them and what not. If you don't want kids, get on birth control and use condoms. That's what pretty much happened with my mother; she gave up my brother who is only three days short of two years older than me. I can go all the way back to when I first started speaking that I wished I wanted an older brother. It wasn't until I was about eight-years-old that my aunt "accidentally slipped" and told me. I apparently wasn't supposed to know I had an older brother out there in this world and I simply felt betrayed by that. I'm very close to my family and ever since I've known about my older brother, I've been trying to find him. Then, my mother goes and tells me that my brother's adoption took place in court and the adoption records are sealed; only my brother can access it and choose to find my mother, if he wishes. He'll be 21 three days after I turn 19 this year in May and I'm pretty sure that if he was going to look for my mom, he would have done it already. It's very heartbreaking and devastating to know I can't find my brother, so I absolutely don't believe in sealed adoption records. I think all adoptions should be open and I think all children who are adopted have the right to know who their biological family is.