The State of Adoption Reform in NC

I think it’s best, once again, to talk about North Carolina’s Confidential Intermediary Program. Since the law took affect in January 2008, some counties were eager to provide the service to adoptees and birth parents, while others weren’t. The ability of agencies to say “Hey, we’re not doing it”, still bothers me.
Who gets to choose if they will obey a law or not?

The Confidential Intermediary Program is not the be all end all for North Carolina. It is the stepping stone in which the adoption triad of NC chose to start the adoption reform process. What most adoptees in this state want is equality; to be treated like everyone else with regards to access to their original birth certificate. You have yours. Why can’t I have mine? I am an adult with my own children and would like to have access to the piece of paper that documents my TRUE BIRTH; the one with my original name, the location and hospital of where I was born and to whom I was born. The social taboos of adoption backed by antiquated state law keep this information a secret.

In studying the history of sealed adoption records in the United States as well as North Carolina, the sealing of one’s original birth certificate was put into place for several reasons. First, was to keep the biological parents from interfering with the new family. Secondly, to keep the adoptee from knowing the status of his or her birth. (i.e. unwed, bastard, illegitimate). Unfortunately, lawmakers use birth mother privacy/confidentiality as an argument to keep the records sealed, yet the law was actually created to keep the birth parents from violating the adoptive family’s privacy.

The Confidential Intermediary law is about reunions. It’s about people wanting to exchange medical history, pictures, cards, letters and possibly meeting for which I am an advocate if that is what an individual wants. Unfortunately, it is NOT about the right to the original documentation of one’s birth. Let me just clarify that not every adoptee wants a reunion. Some would just like the opportunity to obtain the documentation of their birth. Some don’t care to know a thing. I’m all for that too. However, at the present time, due to the circumstances of our birth, adoptees’ have been denied the basic right to our original and true identity; the original birth certificate that documents our genetic identity. Many of us want it, some of us don’t, but one thing is for certain, we all have the right to it.

The CI program does not address our rights as human beings, but rest assure the North Carolina Coalition for Adoption Reform will continue to pursue those rights for the adult adoptee population here in NC.