Adoption disclosure refers to the official release of information relating to the legal adoption of a child. Throughout much of the 20th century, many Western countries had legislation intended to prevent adoptees and adoptive families from knowing the identities of birth parents and vice versa. After a decline in the social stigma surrounding adoption, many Western countries changed laws to allow for the release of formerly secret birth information, usually with limitations. [1]
Though adoption is an ancient practice, the notion of formal laws intended to solidify the adoption by restricting information exchange is comparatively young. In most Western countries until the 1960s and 1970s, adoption bore with it a certain stigma as it was associated in the popular mind with illegitimacy, orphanhood, and premarital or extramarital sex. Unmarried pregnant women were often sent elsewhere from the latter stages of pregnancy until birth, with the intent of concealing the pregnancy from family and neighbours.
The passage of legislation which solidified the secrecy of adoption for both parties was regarded as a social good: it attempted to ensure the shame associated with adoption was a one-time event and prevent disputes over the child. The legislation was also influenced by prevailing psychological beliefs in social determinism: believers in social determinism felt that adoptees' origins and genetics were irrelevant to their future except perhaps for medical purposes.
Many instances of such legislation did allow for "non-identifying information", generalized background information about birth parents collected by adoption workers, which by deliberate design did not identify them.
As many adoptees and birth families were curious about one another, various attempts were made to work around these provisions. Two common approaches were contributing to passive registries and initiating active searches.
A passive registry or adoption reunion registry is a double-blind list, in which participants may opt to join. If Alice joins and specifies she is interested in meeting Bob, one of two things may happen. If Bob has already joined and indicated he wishes to meet Alice, contact between them is arranged. Otherwise, Alice simply waits on the list until Bob should decide to join. Many adoption reunion registries have been created since the 1950s, from those that are part of adoption search and support group membership services, to internet registries and state sponsored registries. The oldest and largest independent registry is ISRR - the International Soundex Reunion Registry, Inc. founded in 1975. [2]
An active search is a conscious effort to find a birth family member or adoptee with whatever knowledge is available.
A typical problem with disclosure is balancing the desire for information with the promises, explicit or implicit, that have been made to parties in the past.
With a disclosure veto, the government announces that Bob's name will be available to Alice upon her request after a certain date. If Bob does not want contact from Alice, he may issue a written veto before this date elapses. If he does not do this, his name will be released upon Alice's request.
With a contact veto, Bob has no means of preventing Alice from learning his name upon her request. However, he can issue a veto of sorts preventing her from attempting to contact him after she learns his name.
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parents to the adoptive parents.
The international adoption of South Korean children was at first started as a result of a large number of orphaned mixed children from the Korean War after 1953, but later included orphaned Korean children. Religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many Western European nations slowly developed into the apparatus that sustained international adoption as a socially integrated system. This system, however, is essentially gone as of 2020. The number of children given for adoption is lower than in comparable OECD countries of a similar size, the majority of adoptees are adopted by South Korean families, and the number of international adoptees is at a historical low.
A family reunion is an occasion when many members of an extended family congregate. Sometimes reunions are held regularly, for example on the same date of every year.
An adoption reunion registry is a formal mechanism where adoptees and their birth family members can be reunited. Registries may be free or charge fees, be facilitated by non-profit organizations, government agencies or private businesses.
Closed adoption is a process by which an infant is adopted by another family, and the record of the biological parent(s) is kept sealed. Often, the biological father is not recorded—even on the original birth certificate. An adoption of an older child who already knows his or her biological parent(s) cannot be made closed or secret. This used to be the most traditional and popular type of adoption, peaking in the decades of the post-World War II Baby Scoop Era. It still exists today, but it exists alongside the practice of open adoption. The sealed records effectively prevent the adoptee and the biological parents from finding, or even knowing anything about each other. However, the emergence of non-profit organizations and private companies to assist individuals with their sealed records has been effective in helping people who want to connect with biological relatives to do so.
Ann Cavoukian is the former Information and Privacy Commissioner for the Canadian province of Ontario. Her concept of privacy by design, which takes privacy into account throughout the system engineering process, was expanded on, as part of a joint Canadian-Dutch team, both before and during her tenure as commissioner of Ontario.
More adoptions occur in California each year than any other state. There is domestic adoption, international adoption, step parent adoption and adult adoption.
In the United States, adoption is the process of creating a legal parent-child relationship between a child and a parent who was not automatically recognized as the child's parent at birth.
Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the biological and adoptive families have access to varying degrees of each other's personal information and have an option of contact. While open adoption is a relatively new phenomenon in the west, it has been a traditional practice in many Asian societies, especially in South Asia, for many centuries. In Hindu society, for example, it is relatively common for a childless couple to adopt the second or later son of the husband's brother when the childless couple has limited hope of producing their own child.
The Adoption Information Disclosure Act, formally An Act respecting the disclosure of information and records to adopted persons and birth parents, also known as Bill 183, is an Ontario (Canada) law regarding the disclosure of information between parties involved in adoptions.
The Adoption Disclosure Register (ADR) is an adoption reunion registry operated by the government of Ontario, Canada. It implements the adoption disclosure provisions of the Child and Family Services Act.
Sealed birth records refers to the practice of sealing the original birth certificate upon adoption or legitimation, often making a copy of the record unavailable except by court order. Upon finalization of the adoption, the original birth certificate is sealed and replaced with an amended birth certificate declaring the adoptee to be the child of his or her adoptive parents, "as if" born to them. Many states, provinces and countries adopted this practice in the early to mid-20th century with the aim of protecting the adopted person from the shame of an illegitimate birth. Sealed or closed birth records are generally associated with closed adoption. Open records is generally referred to as the practice of opening original birth records to adult adoptees, and should not be confused with open adoption, which can occur with or without sealed records, depending on the laws of the state or province in which it is carried out.
The Uniform Adoption Act (1994) is a model law proposed by the U.S. Uniform Law Commission. It attempts to "be a comprehensive and uniform state adoption code that:
The Access to Adoption Records Act, is an Ontario (Canada) law passed in 2008 regarding the disclosure of information between parties involved in adoptions. It is the successor to the 2005 Adoption Information Disclosure Act, parts of which were struck down in 2007 in a ruling by Judge Edward Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court. The bill passed third reading on May 14, 2008.
Emma May Vilardi
The International Soundex Reunion Registry, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax exempt, humanitarian organization founded in 1975 by Emma May Vilardi. ISRR is a free mutual consent adoption reunion registry for persons desiring a reunion with next-of-kin. This agency serves the needs of family members who have been separated from each other by adoption, divorce, foster care, abandonment, or other means.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to adoption:
An anonymous birth is a birth where the mother gives birth to a child without disclosing her identity, or where her identity remains unregistered. In many countries, anonymous births have been legalized for centuries in order to prevent formerly frequent killings of newborn children, particularly outside of marriage.
In a confidential birth, the mother provides her identity to authorities, but requires that her identity not be disclosed by the authorities. In many countries, confidential births have been legalized for centuries in order to prevent formerly frequent killings of newborn children, particularly outside of marriage.
Birth mothers in South Korea refers to the group of biological mothers whose children were given up for adoption in South Korea's international adoption practice. The decades-long phenomenon of international adoption in South Korea began after the Korean War. In the years since the war, South Korea has become the largest and longest provider of children placed for international adoption, with 165,944 recorded Korean adoptees living in 14 countries, primarily in North America and Western Europe, as of 2014.