Confidential birth

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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.

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The mother's right of informational self-determination suspends the child's right to know about their biological ancestry until she changes her mind or until the adult child requests disclosure at a later point. The alternative concept of an anonymous birth, where the mother does not disclose her identity to the authorities at all, or where her identity remains infinitely undisclosed, goes beyond this.

History

An early forerunner of confidential birth legislation can be found in Sweden, where the Infanticide Act of 1778 granted mothers both the right and means to give birth to a child anonymously. The act's 1856 amendment, however, restricted this legislation to confidential births, where the midwife was ordered to keep the mother's name in a sealed envelope.

In France, confidential births were legalized in 1793, when Article 326 of the Code Civil introduced both the concepts of anonymous and confidential births.

Infanticide

Infanticide by definition is a person deliberately killing a child who had yet to reach the age of discretion, which varies by location, but is generally considered to be nine years old, though in the Catholic Church, this age is seven. [1] If a mother kills her child and is married, then the case would not be tried as infanticide but as common law under murder. If the child was stillborn, the mother was to prove it by one witness and documentation by an official of the newborn's death. [2]

Infanticide was common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries due to the difficulty of prosecution and the nature of the offense. In most places, a humanitarian view led to those prosecuting to consider that when newborns were killed by unmarried adolescents, that punishment should be less harsh. [2]

Infanticide decreased as resolutions came about which changed the perceptions of females to themselves and others. Some societies came to realize that oppressive behavior towards women often led to the death of their children. This encouraged society to reconsider the patterns and roles that they play. [2]

The Right to Privacy

This section gives historical background on privacy in the United States and how it came into play for the right of sealed birth records and confidential birth in the US.

The growth of privacy in America was a slow development. In the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights, the term "private" is used, such as private property, but the term "privacy" is not used, and the concept of a personal right to privacy was not emphasized except in the Fourth Amendment, which states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated", and in the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against self-incrimination. Other rights to privacy were implied through the language of the laws, but were not explicitly governmentally protected. [3] It was not until the 1850s that a more broad concept of privacy began to be sought as a right, beginning with the invention of the telegraph, due to instances of illegal transcription of messages.

Sealed records law was installed in 1917, allowing both parties to benefit from confidentiality, mainly the state and whoever else was involved. Birth certificates are sealed for those adopted, so that the adoptive parents feel autonomy from the biological parents and receive the privacy that birth parents have. [4] The sealed records law allows anyone adopted to create their own fate without influence from biological parents and their origins. [4]

A greater expansion of governmentally-protected rights to privacy eventually came in the 1965 US Supreme Court case of Griswold v. Connecticut [5] , in which it was argued that there should be a broader, stronger constitutional and legal basis for those seeking privacy in general. Griswold v. Connecticut began as the State of Connecticut v. Estelle T. Griswold and C. Lee Buxton, in which Connecticut sought to enforce its 1879 Comstock law against providing birth control or giving advice about it. Estelle Griswold was executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, who with Buxton, medical director for the League, operated a birth control clinic in New Haven. Griswold felt that medically prescribed methods of birth control should be offered and available to married women, for the health of mothers and their economic and emotional stability. Dr. Buxton testified that he advised married women regarding certain methods of birth control to preserve the lives and health of women with certain medical conditions. [3] In Connecticut, devices such as condoms were widely available for preventing the transmission of venereal diseases, and the appellants argued that advice on the use of these devices for birth control for medical purposes should also be permitted. Connecticut argued that a physician must abide by the law's anti-contraception statute. Griswold and Buxton were found guilty under the General Statutes of the State of Connecticut because they assisted women for the purpose of preventing conception rather than for medical reasons. Griswold appealed her conviction to the US Supreme Court, on the grounds that her clients' right to privacy was being violated. The case was argued by the lawyer for Griswold and Buxton, Thomas Emerson. [3] The Court voted seven to two in favor of the appellants, and in its decision, expanded privacy protections to peripheral activities as well, citing the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. [3]

Reasons for Confidential Birth and Birth Records not being of Public Matter

Some women choose not to give their personal information when giving birth to a child as a matter of personal privacy. They feel that the information asked is too personal and is not useful for medical records. Questions asked include: What is the highest level of education reached by both parents? What is the standing employment for parents? How many times has the mother terminated pregnancies? Did the mother smoke during pregnancy, before, or after? [6] How many cigarettes per day? What was the alcohol use per day before and during pregnancy? To be able to receive a birth certificate, the mother must fill out the questionnaire, and her answers are stored by the National Center for Health Statistics in a confidential data set, but the data is saved with the mother's name attached. [6]

It is often adolescents who decide to have confidential births and confidential adoptions. Some have unresolved issues with their family and in other aspects of their life, having not yet reached the age at which they can fully link their actions to possible consequences. Without the psychological maturity of adulthood, it can be difficult for an adolescent to take on the task of parenting an infant. [7] Pregnant adolescents can have various difficult reactions, including denial and self-blame, or seeing the pregnancy as a way to solve depression or to affirm femininity. Relinquishing responsibility often leads to adoption, in hopes to give the child a better life and to allow one or both parents to retain their freedom. [7] The mother is asked whether she wants to relinquish her parental rights, but also whether she wants to keep in contact with the child. [7]

Birth record statistics are affected by problems in acquiring records regarding children who are born out of wedlock, of unknown parentage, are legitimated, or are adopted. [8] The American Association of Registration Executives and the Council on Vital Records and Statistics released a statement on the need for a nationwide policy on the confidential nature of birth records which will (1) assure the confidentiality of all birth records; (2) regulate the completeness and accuracy of all information given in birth reports, adoptions, and legitimations; (3) allow the individual to secure information regarding their birth or family relationships; (4) protect individuals (both the child and others) from the release of information that is undesired. [8] This policy of secured birth records requires that the data be complete and accurate since individuals need certification of their birth for various official needs. Also, health and social agencies need this information for statistical and administrative purposes, while not allowing the information to be available to the general public. [8]

Change from Traditional Confidential Adoption to Open Adoption

Confidential adoption: non-identifying information is made available, or those who keep the confidential records still exchange, through an agency, the biological parents' medical data to the adoptive parents. [7]

Open Adoption: identifying data is exchanged through contact between the adoptive parents and biological parents, and is encouraged. Contact continues throughout the life of the child via letters, gifts, photographs, etc., or even visits between both sets of parents and the child. Some families put limits on meetings between the biological parents and their child, while others maintain more open relationships. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adoption</span> Parenting a child in place of the original parents

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parent</span> Caregiver of offspring in their own species

A parent is either the progenitor of a child or, in humans, it can refer to a caregiver or legal guardian, generally called an adoptive parent or step-parent. The gametes of a parent result in a child, a male through the sperm, and a female through the ovum. Parents who are progenitors are first-degree relatives and have 50% genetic meet. A female can also become a parent through surrogacy. Some parents may be adoptive parents, who nurture and raise an offspring, but are not related to the child. Orphans without adoptive parents can be raised by their grandparents or other family members.

Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to use contraceptives without government restriction. The case involved a Connecticut "Little Comstock Act" that prohibited any person from using "any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception". The court held that the statute was unconstitutional, and that its effect was "to deny disadvantaged citizens ... access to medical assistance and up-to-date information in respect to proper methods of birth control." By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the "right to marital privacy", establishing the basis for the right to privacy with respect to intimate practices. This and other cases view the right to privacy as "protected from governmental intrusion".

The international adoption of South Korean children started around 1953 as a measure to take care of the large number of mixed children that became orphaned during and after the Korean War. It quickly evolved to include orphaned Korean children. Religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many Western European nations slowly developed the apparatus that sustained international adoption as a socially integrated system. As of 2023, South Korea still sent 79 children overseas, making it the country with the longest running international adoption program.

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 their 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.

Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that established the right of unmarried people to possess contraception on the same basis as married couples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adoption in California</span> Overview of adoption in the U.S. state of California

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.

Pregnancy options counseling is a form of counseling that provides information and support regarding pregnancy. Women seeking pregnancy options counseling are typically doing so in the case of an unplanned or unintended pregnancy. Limited access to birth control and family planning resources, as well as misuse of birth control are some of the major contributing factors to unintended pregnancies around the world. In 2012, the global rate of unintended pregnancies was estimated to be 40 percent, or eighty-five million pregnancies.

Mother's rights are the legal obligations for expecting mothers, existing mothers, and adoptive mothers. Issues that involve mothers' rights include labor rights, breast feeding, and family rights.

Genealogical bewilderment is a term referring to potential identity problems that could be experienced by a child who was either fostered, adopted, or conceived via an assisted reproductive technology procedure such as surrogacy or gamete donation.

The Infanticide Act, often referred to as "Infanticide act of Gustav III" after its instigator Gustav III of Sweden, was a historical Swedish law, which was introduced in 1778 and in effect until 1917, with alterations in 1856.

Catherine Gertrude Roraback was a civil rights attorney in Connecticut, best known for representing Estelle Griswold and Dr. C. Lee Buxton in the famous 1965 Supreme Court case, Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized the use of birth control in Connecticut and created the precedent of the right to privacy. She is also known for such cases as the New Haven Black Panther trials of 1971, in which she defended Black Panther member Ericka Huggins after she was accused of murder. Roraback dealt with issues such as women's rights and racial discrimination, and lived her life to defend the rights of the "dissenters and the dispossessed".

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to adoption:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Estelle Griswold</span> American civil rights activist and feminist (1900–1981)

Estelle Naomi Trebert Griswold was a civil rights activist and feminist most commonly known as a defendant in what became the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut, in which contraception for married couples was legalized in the state of Connecticut, setting the precedent of the right to privacy. Griswold served as the executive director of Planned Parenthood in New Haven when she and Yale professor C. Lee Buxton opened a birth control clinic in New Haven in an attempt to change the Connecticut law banning contraception. Their actions set into motion legislation that resulted in both Poe v. Ullman and Griswold v. Connecticut.

Pregnancy options counseling is a form of counseling aimed to counsel women on decision-making for a troubling or unintended pregnancy.

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.

Adoption does not exist formally as a practice in Jewish Law (Halacha), although rabbinic texts were not uniform on whether or not they recognized the validity of adoption and several examples of adoption take place in the Hebrew Bible and texts from the Second Temple Judaism. The Hebrew word for adoption ‘אימוץ’ (immutz), which derives from the verb ‘אמץ’ (amatz) in Psalm 80 verse 16 and 18 meaning ‘to make strong’, was not introduced until the modern age. Jewish perspectives towards adoption promote two contradictory messages towards nurture and nature. On the one hand, Judaism expresses favourable attitudes towards adoption across religious movements and is widely viewed as a good deed (mitzvah). Based on the Talmudic teachings that when one raises an orphan in their home, "scripture ascribes it to him as though he had begotten him," rabbis have argued that the commandment of procreation can also be fulfilled through the act of adoption. However, this interpretation raises a number of questions in relation to lineage and biological status, which is a core value in Halacha.

References

  1. ↑ "Dictionary : AGE OF DISCRETION". www.catholicculture.org. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Rowe, G. S. (1991). "Infanticide, Its Judicial Resolution, and Criminal Code Revision in Early Pennsylvania". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 135 (2): 200–232. JSTOR   987032. PMID   11612570.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Johnson, John W. (2005). Griswold v. Connecticut: Birth Control and the Constitutional Right of Privacy. University Press of Kansas.
  4. 1 2 Wegar, Katarina (1997). Adoption, Identity, and Kinship: The Debate over Sealed Birth Records. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 82–85.
  5. ↑ "FindLaw's United States Supreme Court case and opinions". Findlaw. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  6. 1 2 "Mom won't fill out form; kids denied birth certificates". Milwaukee Journal. 16 January 1995. p. 1A. ProQuest   333665338.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page".
  8. 1 2 3 "Review of The Confidential Nature of Birth Records". Social Service Review. 25 (1): 139–140. 1951. JSTOR   30018637.
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