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!

Economy Down, Adoptions Up

Shannon LC Cate — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Adoption agencies around the country are reporting a rise of between 10 and 30% in pregnant women and new mothers inquiring about placing their infants with new families, since the recession began.

The story of one such woman, a single mother to three teens who found herself unexpectedly pregnant again with no support from her baby's father, is outlined in a report at USATODAY.com.

As an adoptive mother, I understand the joy of adoptive parents. As an advocate of reproductive choice, I believe strongly in ethical adoption as an option for women who need it and choose it freely from other options. But I am saddened by this rise in adoptions due to economic crisis.

When adoptions happen strictly because a mother can't afford--financially--to raise her baby, society has failed both mother and child. When the cost of food, shelter, clothing, healthcare and education can only be met by some, all families are devalued. The only solution to a mother's financial desperation should not be sending her child to live with wealthier parents. When that is the case, it suggests that only people with a certain income deserve or are capable of raising children.

I can already hear the protests that people without the means to support their children shouldn't have children in the first place. But even if I believed that (which I don't), pregnancy is not 100% preventable by any means at all. I include abstinence, because sex is not always a woman's choice.

But I simply don't believe that the care and raising of children ought to be an exclusively private enterprise. In fact, neither do those involved in adoption. Adoption is all about the communal care of children. It is about people outside a family working with that family--becoming additional family--for the support of children who need more than just their birth parents' support.

But adoption has enormous consequences for all parties involved--adopted people, first parents, adoptive parents--and should be a last resort option when other alternatives are exhausted. Mere inability to pay a hospital bill should not lead to adoption.

If I thought my children were with me just because their first mothers were too poor to raise them, I couldn't sleep at night. I've been poor in the past, myself. Poverty does not make a person unfit to be a parent. And circumstances change. My family could find itself in financial trouble in the future. I would hope that under those circumstances, I wouldn't be told my only option were giving my children to others.

Before we celebrate a rise in adoptions, we need to rethink what society could be doing to help original families stay together. Universal healthcare, quality public education, fair housing costs and other supports are a few modest proposals to get us started.

Strollerderby : adopted people

Ontario Opens Original Birth Certificates for Adopted Adults

Economy Down, Adoptions Up