Adoption Vs Adoption

In all the states except Kansas and Alaska, birth records of adoptees are sealed to protect the privacy of the birth mother as well as the adoptive families. Kansas and Alaska give adoptees age 18 and over unconditional access to their birth records and nineteen other states allow limited access (Lyons). Recently, it has become harder for adoptees to find their birth parents causing one of the biggest controversies in society. Movies and TV shows typically exaggerate the reunions of birth mothers and adoptees, whereas in reality adoptees' original birth records can only be opened through a court order in several states. The efforts to retain their birth records is a stressful process and many are fighting to change the system. Traditionally,

Adoptions were not regulated by statute in the United States until 1851, when Massachusetts became the first state to pass an adoption law. It required the written consent of the birth parents, a joint petition by both adoptive parents, and an adoption decree by a judge and legal separation between the child and the birth parent (Hermann). After World War I, there was a large number of orphaned and illegitimate children which increased the appeal of adoption and paved the way for controversy (Lyons). Madelyn Freundlich, Policy Director for Children’s Rights, reminds us that in the 1930s and 1940s, “states began the practice of issuing amended birth certificates that listed the names of their adoptive parents as their biological parents and sealed the original birth certificates that identified their first parents.” And so, parents who adopted children born between 1940 and the early 1980s in the United States grew up in a world in which adoption agencies and the general public strongly believed that maintaining “absolute secrecy” and cutting off all connection with the child's birth family were “essential for protecting the child's emotional well-being” (Siegel). In mid-20th century the focus had changed from confidentiality to secrecy: “the protection of information from public scrutiny” became “sealing information from access even by those involved in the adoption” (Freundlich). By 1960, only 20 states continued to allow access; of those 20, four sealed birth records during the 1960s, six more did so in the 1970s, another six in the 1980s and Alabama in 1990 (Lyons). Kansas and Alaska were the only states that never prohibited adult adopted persons from obtaining their original birth certificates. The remaining state, South Dakota, allowed records to be available on demand but