Saturday, March 10, 2007
A Step Forward?
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Proposed bill would increase information for adoptees
As you may have already read, Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline introduced legislation requiring full disclosure of family medical problems at the time of adoption.
A spokesman the National Council for Adoption, the nation's largest adoption advocacy group, endorsed Jacobs' proposal saying it was for the sharing of information as long as it doesn't identify the birth parents.
NCFA Claims: ""When a woman is going to have a baby, she has different choices - one of them is to have an abortion, another is to place the baby up for adoption. For many young women, if they were not guaranteed confidentiality, they would choose abortion." BOOO!! BS! Spokesperson Allen goes on: "Just as an abortion decision is confidential, so too should be adoption." DUH! Minor difference... in one case there is no one else's life and rights involved!
But a spokeswoman for Bastard Nation, one of the nation's largest adoptee's rights groups, called the measure nearly "worthless." (The group's name is derived from the word once stamped on birth certificates of children placed for adoption.)
"Maybe this bill could do a little bit of good -- but not much. This is just a way for people to feel like they are giving adoptees something when it really doesn't address what we really need - access to all of our adoption records," said Anita Walker Field, executive secretary of the organization.
Some suggest the bill go further and provide continual updates of the biological parent's health.
So "BIOLOGICAL" parents are reduced and discarded once again. We are biological matter like a sperm donor who REQUESTED anonymity. Regardless of the circumstances that might have led a mother to part with her child: poverty, social stigma. lack of familial support, abusive partner....society continues to turn their back on this BIOLOGICAL egg donor and further the myth that nurture trumps nature - except for these small details like breast cancer risk...
This proposed legislation not only ignores the issue of an adoptees right to be treated equal in every way with non-adoptees, but it reduces their progenitors to incubators and this perpetuates the exploitation of indigent women here and abroad for the babies.
This legislation is demeaning and dehumanizing to all of the parties touched by adoption. It treats adoptees like puppies in a pound that just need their pedigree to go along with them...and treats their parents like breeders.
Mothers who sacrifice their children in the hopes of them having a “better life” were never promised, nor did they ask for anonymity from their child – which is very different than an expectation of privacy and confidentiality from public scrutiny into their past.
As a mother who lovingly relinquished a child for adoption I do not want my child learning about me from the cold records of a social worker forty years ago when health issues made it impossible to parent my child. Those health issues are now totally resolved and there are new ones. More importantly, not medical records could relate to my child the love in my heart and my regret for any feelings of rejection my decision may have caused.
Adoption is not a one-time event that remains static. It is an ongoing interpersonal life-changing situation and has a tremendous ripple effect on more than just one mother and one child.
I have a subsequent child who suffers from the same medical issues that took the life of my first child at the tender age of 27. But because as a birthmother my role is negated, my darling child is now left without her siblings medical history which may provide some clues to her treatment.
You are encouraged to go to: http://www.inottawa .com/ottnews/ archives/ ottawa/display. php?id=293139 to add your comments.
Proposed bill would increase information for adoptees
As you may have already read, Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline introduced legislation requiring full disclosure of family medical problems at the time of adoption.
A spokesman the National Council for Adoption, the nation's largest adoption advocacy group, endorsed Jacobs' proposal saying it was for the sharing of information as long as it doesn't identify the birth parents.
NCFA Claims: ""When a woman is going to have a baby, she has different choices - one of them is to have an abortion, another is to place the baby up for adoption. For many young women, if they were not guaranteed confidentiality, they would choose abortion." BOOO!! BS! Spokesperson Allen goes on: "Just as an abortion decision is confidential, so too should be adoption." DUH! Minor difference... in one case there is no one else's life and rights involved!
But a spokeswoman for Bastard Nation, one of the nation's largest adoptee's rights groups, called the measure nearly "worthless." (The group's name is derived from the word once stamped on birth certificates of children placed for adoption.)
"Maybe this bill could do a little bit of good -- but not much. This is just a way for people to feel like they are giving adoptees something when it really doesn't address what we really need - access to all of our adoption records," said Anita Walker Field, executive secretary of the organization.
Some suggest the bill go further and provide continual updates of the biological parent's health.
So "BIOLOGICAL" parents are reduced and discarded once again. We are biological matter like a sperm donor who REQUESTED anonymity. Regardless of the circumstances that might have led a mother to part with her child: poverty, social stigma. lack of familial support, abusive partner....society continues to turn their back on this BIOLOGICAL egg donor and further the myth that nurture trumps nature - except for these small details like breast cancer risk...
This proposed legislation not only ignores the issue of an adoptees right to be treated equal in every way with non-adoptees, but it reduces their progenitors to incubators and this perpetuates the exploitation of indigent women here and abroad for the babies.
This legislation is demeaning and dehumanizing to all of the parties touched by adoption. It treats adoptees like puppies in a pound that just need their pedigree to go along with them...and treats their parents like breeders.
Mothers who sacrifice their children in the hopes of them having a “better life” were never promised, nor did they ask for anonymity from their child – which is very different than an expectation of privacy and confidentiality from public scrutiny into their past.
As a mother who lovingly relinquished a child for adoption I do not want my child learning about me from the cold records of a social worker forty years ago when health issues made it impossible to parent my child. Those health issues are now totally resolved and there are new ones. More importantly, not medical records could relate to my child the love in my heart and my regret for any feelings of rejection my decision may have caused.
Adoption is not a one-time event that remains static. It is an ongoing interpersonal life-changing situation and has a tremendous ripple effect on more than just one mother and one child.
I have a subsequent child who suffers from the same medical issues that took the life of my first child at the tender age of 27. But because as a birthmother my role is negated, my darling child is now left without her siblings medical history which may provide some clues to her treatment.
You are encouraged to go to: http://www.inottawa .com/ottnews/ archives/ ottawa/display. php?id=293139 to add your comments.
# posted by Senior Mom @ 9:54 AM 
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There are other problems with this concept. Requiring written medical information about"family" puts the mother in a position of being responsible for providing "history" of family members she may not even know.She may not have access to her own relatives histories and they may not want her to turn it in to the government or some agency.
And where is this medical history going to go? To the government?
Most mothers would be happy to give the history that they know directly to their children, but many of us are less than comfortable about handing our private medical history over to some agency.
And what about the father and his famiy?
Medical privacy laws(HIPAA) won't even allow people to stand near each other at a pharmacy counter.
Again, this is another example of how adoption-separated people are treated unequally.Non-adopted family members do not have to turn over medical histories to agencies.
We should be allowed to talk to our relatives, just like anyone else, and share our medical histories, directly, just like anyone else.Family members should be able to ask each other for history, but being forced to hand it over to the government is a violation.
And where is this medical history going to go? To the government?
Most mothers would be happy to give the history that they know directly to their children, but many of us are less than comfortable about handing our private medical history over to some agency.
And what about the father and his famiy?
Medical privacy laws(HIPAA) won't even allow people to stand near each other at a pharmacy counter.
Again, this is another example of how adoption-separated people are treated unequally.Non-adopted family members do not have to turn over medical histories to agencies.
We should be allowed to talk to our relatives, just like anyone else, and share our medical histories, directly, just like anyone else.Family members should be able to ask each other for history, but being forced to hand it over to the government is a violation.
# posted by 
: 12:38 PM
: 12:38 PM
Right on, K! They claim they want to "protect" us - our "right" to anonymity, but our medical records are do not deserve the same protection as others' do!
And if the mother is deceased, or hasn't contributed information, the adopted person has no access to any other family members.
There is sooo much wrong with this!
PLEASE post your comments on the link provided.
And if the mother is deceased, or hasn't contributed information, the adopted person has no access to any other family members.
There is sooo much wrong with this!
PLEASE post your comments on the link provided.
This is a crappy bill that needs to die. "Medical histories" have a long history as a sop to weak-willed liberal "activists" who will take anything. I'm sure it's well-intentioned, but we know where that road leads.
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