Ontario Opens Original Birth Certificates for Adopted Adults

Shannon LC Cate — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Monday (1 June) was a day that many thousands of people in Ontario will remember for the rest of their lives. It was the first day people adopted in Ontario (since 1921) could apply to the government for their original birth records.

A new law, similar to one already in place in other Canadian provinces, one in the UK and a handful of U.S. states, allows adopted persons over 18 years old to apply for their original birth certificates--containing their original names and the name or names of their original mother and perhaps father.

Detractors worried that people desiring privacy from contact by biological family members would be harassed if the law was passed. But experience in places where such laws already exist has shown very few problems. All the same, a provision was added to the new law allowing persons desiring so to "veto" the other party's right to the information. But although over 250,000 adoptions have been record in the province since 1921, less than 4,000 people have submitted "veto" requests or contact restrictions (such as asking that any contact be made via a work address rather than home, for example).

It is important to note, however that while some people seeking this information will use it to try and contact biological family members, the information itself includes no right to contact, no addresses or phone numbers, but merely names. There's certainly no guarantee that the parties will decide to build or maintain a relationship if they do meet.

But what's important about this law--in spite of the veto measure, which is less than satisfactory to many activists--is that is makes way for a flood of people hitherto denied a basic civil right to finally become first-class citizens. We don't tolerate secret arrests, secret evidence in trials, secret wiretapping of citizens. How silly is it to uphold enforced secrecy from a citizen of a thing as personal--and uninteresting to anyone but the individual in question--as a birth certificate?

Congratulations Ontario. And Happy Birth Certificate Day to adopted Ontarians!

Former Foster Care Kid Adopted At 36

JeanneSager — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:31:00 GMT

I may be totally ripping off Grace Slick, but everybody wants somebody to love, right? Even if it's been eighteen years since you aged out of the foster care system and gave up your dreams of one day finding a mom?

Alice Jones spent sixteen years in the foster care system, and she's been out of it for eighteen. But last week, Jones finally got adopted.

The thirty-six-year-old computer programmer entered a Texas courtroom with friend Kate Held, a fifty-year-old mentor and mother figures of sorts who officially became her mom during a short ceremony complete with "It's a Girl" balloons.

Are you crying yet? Just wait.

Alice Jones was abandoned by her biological mother as a baby, by her biological father at two. Until she was eighteen, she spent her life in foster care - but her foster family opted against adoption. She went on to college and began a successful career as a programmer. At a fundraiser for a Texas charity that helps low-income kids last spring, Jones was paired with one of the organizers, Tracy Eilers, executive director of the Adoption Coalition of Central Texas, for a special meet-and-greet section of the program. She told Eilers she'd been in foster care, and though she never asked for it, Eilers hatched a plan to get Jones adopted.

Eilers told the Austin-American Statesman. “It was very hurtful to her. The pain doesn’t go away at some miraculous age.”

Eilers convinced Jones to talk to Held, and voila . . . instant-family.

My hat's off to all involved - Eilers for realizing adults who have aged out of the foster system are still in need of family support, Held for opening her heart, and Jones for keeping her heart open. But for all the good in this story, I'm still angered by the fact that it had to happen.

She spent sixteen years in the foster system, and no one stepped forward. There is still too much emphasis put on adopting babies in this country - and out of this country. I'm not against international adoption, but I find it hard to sympathize with people who say they could have adopted domestically, but they would have had to "sacrifice" their dreams of adopting a baby. Parenting means parenting kids - period. If you can't have your own - or decide not to - turning to adoption is supposed to be a mission of helping a child as much as that child will help your family.

Babies, people say, are easier. They don't come with baggage. Not true, actually, when you talk about a baby born addicted to drugs or you're dealing with an open adoption (a wonderful thing for parents to opt for, I might add). Kids don't come in neat little packages at any age.

Adopting babies is a wonderful gesture. There are hundreds of thousands of kids who come into this world in need of a Mom or Dad, and adoption will change their lives. It will prevent them from ever ending up in a foster system, it will give them a chance they likely wouldn't have had with their birth mother. But it shouldn't be the only option for new parents.

Consider when you're planning to expand your family - do you want a baby because a baby is cute and cuddly? Do you want a baby because it's a fresh start? Do you want a baby because you think it will be easier? Or do you just want to give a kid a chance at a better life, and let them enrich your family with all they can offer?

If your real desire is the latter - keep your options open. You may find an Alice Jones, two and just abandoned by the only parent she had left, waiting to come home with you.

Image: Yell

Strollerderby : adopted adults

Ontario Opens Original Birth Certificates for Adopted Adults

Former Foster Care Kid Adopted At 36

Adopting Kids: Nothing Like Adopting Puppies

Adoptive Parents Report Paying Traffic Tickets as "Fees"

They Say: Kids Might Not Doom a Marriage

Gay Parent Public Service Announcements Censored During Super Bowl

Green Expert Says: Limit Kids to Two