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Access to Identifying Information
What the research tells us
By Madelyn Freundlich, Executive Director
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
One of the key adoption policy issues over the past several years has
been the extent to which members of the adoption triad should have access
to identifying information. The debate has raged both nationally - with
the proposal currently pending in Congress for a National Voluntary
Reunion Registry - and at the state level where bills are being introduced
to allow adopted adults to obtain their original birth certificates.
Two arguments have frequently been raised to defeat such efforts: first,
that birth parents and adopted adults do not need to have information
about one another because they do not wish to be found by one another;
and second, that adoptive parents adamantly oppose access by their adopted
children to identifying information. The research clearly refutes the
rhetoric of both of these arguments. The following summarizes this body
of research and provides a solid basis for responding to efforts to
mischaracterize the interests and desires of all members of the adoption
triad.
1. The research is clear that birth parents and adopted adults do
wish to be found by one another.
In a comprehensive study of the issues involved in adoption, the Maine
Department of Human Resources Task Force on Adoption found in 1989 that
adoptee and birth parents wish, in overwhelming percentages, to be found
by one another. Noting that it was "startled...to learn...how few people
did not wish to be found," the Task Force reported that every birth
parent who was surveyed [130 birth parents] wanted to be found by the
child/adult they had placed for adoption and ninety-five percent of
the adoptees [164 adoptees] who were surveyed expressed a desire to
be found by their birth parents. Similarly, Paul Sachdev's study in
1991 found that a substantial majority of birth mothers (85.5%) and
adoptees (81.1%) supported access by adult adoptees to identifying information
on their birth parents.
Practice-based knowledge further validates that birth parents and adoptee
want to be found by one another. Contrary to the assertion that birth
parents move on with their lives and live in fear that the children
they relinquished for adoption will intrude upon them, research and
the work with birth parents undertaken by Becker (1989), Demick and
Wapner (1988) and Baran, Pannor and Sorosky (1976) uniformly finds that
birth parents do not forget the children they relinquished for adoption
and express strong desires to be found by them; wonder whether they
are alive and healthy; and find that the grief they experienced in having
relinquished their children for adoption was intensified by the secrecy
surrounding adoption and the walls the adoption system has erected against
any contact.
2. Research clearly shows that adoptive parents support the exchange
of information and contact between their adult adopted children and
their birth families.
Rosemary Avery's 1996 research on the attitudes of adoptive parents
in New York regarding access to identifying information found that 84%
of the adoptive mothers and 73% of the adoptive fathers agreed or strongly
agreed that an adult adoptee should be able to obtain identifying information
on his or her birth parents. This research reflects higher levels of
support than that found in Feiglemen and Silverman's 1986 research on
the attitudes of adoptive parents. That study - more than ten years
old - nevertheless found that 55% of the adoptive parents of American-born
children supported legislation easing restrictions on their children
learning about their birth families and 66% of adoptive parents of internationally-adopted
children expressed their support. The Maine Department of Human Resources
Task Force on Adoption found an even higher percentage of adoptive family
support than did Avery. In their 1989 study, the Task Force found that
ninety-eight percent of the adoptive parents supported reunions between
their adopted children and members of the adoptee's birth family. These
findings of Avery, the Maine Task Force on Adoption, and Feigleman and
Silverman are consistent with the practice-based literature. As pointed
out by Gritter (1989) and Chapman, Dorner, Silber & Winterberg (1987)
as well as others, many adoptive parents feel frustrated and a sense
of helplessness because of their inability to help their adopted children
connect with their biological origins.
In conclusion, the research makes clear that birth parents and adopted
adults want access to identifying information and that adoptive families,
rather than feeling threatened by their children's needs and their interests
in their birth families, support that access. Other research, including
that done by McRoy and Grotevant (1994), demonstrates that benefits
flow to all members of the triad when information is more freely shared
and there is greater openness in relationships. Policies that facilitate
connections between birth families and adopted adults and access to
information have strong empirical and practice support.
References
Avery, R. (1996) Information disclosure and openness in adoption;
state policy and empirical evidence. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
Baran, A., Pannor, R. & Sorosky, A.D. (1976). Open adoption. Social
Work, 21, 97-100.
Becker, M.E. (1989). The rights of unwed parents: Feminist approaches.
Social Service Review, 63: 496-517.
Chapman, C., Dorner, P., Silber, K., & Winterberg, T.S. (1987).
Meeting the needs of the adoption triangle through open adoption: The
adoptive parent. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 4:
3-12.
Demick, J. & Wapner, S. (1988). Open and closed adoption: a developmental
conceptualization. Family Process, 27: 229-249.
Feigleman, W. & Silverman, A.R. (1986). Adoptive parents, adoptees,
and the sealed record controversy. Social Casework, 67: 219-226.
Gritter, J. L. (Editor). (1989). Adoption without fear. San
Antonio, TX: Corona Press.
Maine Department of Human Resources, Task Force on Adoption (1989).
Adoption: A life long process. Portland, ME: Author.
McRoy, R. G., Grotevant, H. D. & Ayers-Lopez S. (1994). Changing
practices in adoption. Austin, TX: Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
Sachdev, P. (1991) Achieving openness in adoption: Some critical issues
in policy formulation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61
(2): 241-249.
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