Family medical history crucial for mothers too

My Reply to a NJ Letter:

Peter Franklin (Family medical history crucial for adoptees http://tinyurl.com/6no5ug) is of course right: Family medical history is a vital part of everyone’s health care.

Outdated laws that disallow adoptees and their original families access from one another put all of them and their decedents at risk.

I am a mother who lost a child to adoption and I have been working with this population, researching and writing about adoption issues for nearly 40 years. It is a red herring to believe that mothers want anonymity from their own children.

Mothers who lose children to adoption often go on to have subsequent children without any knowledge of genetic health issues effecting their lost child that might change that decision or be important to the health of their other children.

Medical information needs to be constantly updated and the only way to keep it current and accurate is for people to be allowed to communicate with one another. There is no other circumstances where adults are prevented from doing this, without having violated a law regarding harassment. Yet even convicted felons are not denied knowing their own birth names, ethnicity, correct date and place of birth as many adopted persons are because they are issued falsified birth certificates and denied access to their original one.

Why then do NJ adoption records remain sealed? Because those who profit from adoption operate better under the cloak of secrecy. It’s time to stop supporting baby brokers at the expense of the right of citizens to life, liberty and equality.