Adoptee Rights
News Blog for up-to-date information -
http://adopteerightsnews.blogspot.com
NOTE: Due to Technical difficulties
The Birthparent Project
is being redone as
The Surrender Project
Check back in January 2008 for details.
1) Collect statistical data to present to lawmakers and the
media debating equal access legislation for adult adoptees.
2) Collect copies of actual surrender papers to see what indeed was "promised"
to birthmothers and birthfathers.
3) Determine specifically and conclusively what birthparents asked for, or were promised,
regarding having their identity kept secret from their offspring.
4) See to it that the truth of birthparents' wishes, in regard to adoption records, are
made known.
Nationwide, state-by-state, adults who were adopted as children are fighting to regain the
right to their own birth and medical records. Sealed adoption records deny this one
class of citizens the same rights as all other non-adopted citizens.
New Hampshire
On January 1, 2005 New Hampshire born adult adoptees will be able to
obtain a copy of their original birth certificates! The birthparents of these
adopted adults will have the opportunity to disclose to the adult adoptee whether they
wish to be contacted or not by use of the Contact Preference Form. For all forms and
information click here.
For those mothers and/or fathers who DO desire contact,
completing the CPF will provide updated contact information to the adult adoptee.
The mothers and/or fathers of those adopted adults who may NOT want contact must request
(or download), fill out, and return their CPF PRIOR TO JANUARY 1, 2005 to insure that they
will not be contacted, though they can still file the CPF after January 1, 2005.
New Hampshire Vital Statistics have begun
posting the Pre-Adoption statistics on their website. It will be updated the first
of every week. Click here. It is located at the bottom of the page.
California
California adoptee rights supporters have begun to assemble themselves
under the new banner of California Open. A movement that began as a legislative
reform effort now returns as a task force designed to bring a ballot initiative in 2008.
Click here for information, updates
and Action Alerts for California.
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Essays
Telling our stories in film, plays, books and essays empowers the
author and all who see and read them.
The Eight Fallacies of
Adoption by Anne D. Slagle, adoptee from The Alma Society
The
idea of adoption: an inquiry into the history of adult adoptee access to birth records.
53 Rutgers L. Rev. 367-436 (2001) by Elizabeth J. Samuels
The Recovery Process, Post-reunion by Kate Neal, from the
point of view of an adpotee.
The Day I Threw My Guilt Away by Sheila Ganz
they said a poem by Sheila Ganz
Thesis to the play "they said, 'pretend it
didnt happen'" by Sheila Ganz
Rape, Relinquishment and Closed Records by
Sheila Ganz, an essay originally written for an anthology supporting the
civil right of adult adoptees to obtain their original birth certificate and other
information about their adoption.
A Bullet to the Brain a poem by Mary Jane Klein
Hagofsky
Come my little angel a poem by Jennifer
Beck-Robinson
Seek and ye shall find by Andy
Mirror, Mirror a poem by Craig Hickman
Letter to a Wisconsin Adoption Bureaucrat, June
2001 by Craig Hickman
If you would like to contribute an essay to this website, please email your essay to
Sheila Ganz at unlockingheart@hotmail.com
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© 2008 Sheila Ganz