The Right to Identity: The Effects and Consequences of Restricting Adoptees’ Access to Birth Records
Written by Charlie Rees
Introduction
Adoptees’ access to birth records and other documents regarding their origins is restricted in many countries which state-regulated adoption practices. This issue is at the centre of contentious debate between reformers who seek to widen accessibility for adoptees to their documentation and those which think it should be restricted.
Restricting the rights of adoptees to their documentation is said to be consequential for the well-being of adoptees. This article explores the significance of adoptees' access to birth records and the negative impact of sealed records on their sense of identity and general well being.
What is the Issue?
In the UK, adopted children are unable to access their birth records under the age of 18.
Throughout their formative years, birth records are sealed and adoptees are left with what they may remember or what their adoptive parents may tell them about their origins. Restricting the right for adoptees to access their birth records is common practice in many places with state-regulated adoption practices. In many parts of the US, even adult adoptees face barriers in accessing their birth records. Many states require court orders or large fees for adoptees to access this information. Some states still actively restrict adult adoptees from accessing birth records.
There exists an active debate between reform and restriction: should child and adult adoptees have open access to their birth records? Reformers, comprised mainly of adoptees and biological parents to adopted children believe that open access to birth and adoption records is an important right for adoptees. Reformers believe that this right would improve the emotional development and wellbeing of adoptees and would aid adoptees to contact biological relatives. Those in favour of restricting adoptees’ rights to birth records argue that sealing records is beneficial for the welfare of adoptees and is important for the privacy of biological parents.
Section 2 - Why Is Access Important?
In most of the UK it is a legal right for adoptees to be able to access their full birth records at 18 years old which can reveal the names of their biological parents and their origins. Adoptees in the UK are also afforded the right to access the Adopted Contact Register which allows them to find and make contact with biological relatives. In the UK, these rights are only afforded to adoptees at age 18 but there is a strong case that these rights should be brought forward, giving adoptees access to birth records at any age.
The Right to Identity:
Identity formation is an essential psychological process for all children. Identity formation is a process that occurs from a young age and describes how children begin to understand who they are and how they fit within the world. Children that experience successful identity development go on to become more emotionally competent adults.
Some adoption processes are “closed” meaning that adoptees and adoptive parents have zero contact with biological parents or relatives. Adoptees that experience closed adoption often have no contact with biological parents or relatives and lack any information about their origins pre-adoption. This disconnection can produce many negative emotions and may impede social and mental development in adopted children. Adoptees who are excluded from information regarding their origins or biological parents may experience feelings of loss or a crisis of identity.
Children who experience this disconnect from their biological identity may experience “genealogical bewilderment”. This term describes feelings of confusion and disconnect that result from a lack of knowledge about one’s biological origins. The experience of genealogical bewilderment can lead to feelings of distress, insecurity and other mental health problems.
An anonymous adoptee described the importance of biological connections for adoptees. She explained that non-adoptees take these connections, and the way they influence identity formation for granted. She described questioning her own identity during her upbringing but because she was restricted from records, she had no answer to the questions she raised. The anonymous adoptee did retain her biological surname and describes attributing a special status to this name. For her, the surname represented an important piece of her identity. This account underscores how important biological connections can be for adoptees.
Cultural Connections
A key part of identity formation for adopted children is maintaining a connection to their ethnic and cultural heritage. For adopted children to successfully develop a sense of identity, connections to their heritage must be maintained. Cultural and racial socialisation is essential for the wellbeing of an adopted child. Numerous studies point to the positive emotional, and even physical impacts that maintaining connections to their culture and heritage has on adoptees. Restricting access to birth records and other documents raises questions about how this type of socialisation would occur in practice. Numerous accounts from adoptees themselves have pointed to their experience of racial and cultural socialisation being impeded due to lack of knowledge about their origins or family history.
Lemn Sissay’s lived experience, which he outlines in his book “My Name is Why” underscores the feeling of cultural loss and disconnection which restriction on adoptee’s access to birth records can create. Lemn Sissay is a poet and former chancellor of the University of Manchester. Sissay was separated from his biological mother at birth and was placed with a white British foster family . Sissay was assigned the name first name “Norman” and adopted the surname of his foster family: Greenwood
Sissay was given his birth certificate and a letter from his mother upon leaving the care system aged 18. It was at this time that Sissay discovered his real name and his Ethiopian culture and heritage. Sissay felt that his British name and his experience in care and with foster families had divided him from his birth mother and from his Ethiopian heritage.
The experience of Lemn Sissay highlights the flaws of the current adoption regulations, whereby adoptees are presented with the information of their birth and origins at age 18. Adoptees from transracial or transnational adoption processes may be systematically detached from their cultural heritage and origins because of the lack of access to proper documentation.
Conclusion
The current system in the UK, and in many other countries, is the embodiment of a contentious debate over whether adoptees should have access to their birth certificates and other documentation before the age of 18. There are negative consequences for adoptees who are deprived of this information. Adoptees who are deprived of the information of their origins are denied access to a part of themselves. History is a hugely important resource for adoptees who are liable to experiencing feelings of loss and disconnection towards their biological families and heritage. Depriving adoptees of this feeling of identity and connection is harmful and unhelpful in the personal development of adoptees. Arguments in favour of restricting adoptees’ access to birth records are centred around the concerns and interests of biological and adoptive parents. In deciding at what point of life adoptees should be afforded the right to birth records and other documentation, the focus should be on the welfare of adoptees themselves.
References:
https://adopteerightslaw.com/united-states-obc/#key
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records
https://adopteerightslaw.com/united-states-obc/#key
https://ispfostering.org.uk/identity-formation/#:~:text=Identity%20formation%20
https://ispfostering.org.uk/identity-formation/#:~:text=Identity%20formation%20
https://consideringadoption.com/adopting/open-adoption/closed-adoption-a-fragmented-relationship/
https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1964.tb01981.x
https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/3/4/71
https://howtobeadopted.com/blog/2021/who-am-i-a-blog-about-identity-from-an-adoptees-perspective
file:///C:/Users/Home/Downloads/Cultural%20Socialization%20in%20Families%20With%20Internationally%20Adopted%20Children.pdf
My Name is Why - Lemn Sissay (2019)