Thursday, September 25, 2008

Vital Records

I show this video in my Adoption Law class, and students find it very moving. The lack of information in China adoption makes me very sympathetic to American domestic adoptees who want their original birth certificates. I'll post later about a simple way to get involved in the campaign for open records, but wanted to give you some background about it first! The actual documentary starts right at the 5 minute mark in the first YouTube video.












3 comments:

RamblingMother said...

this makes me sad for G's sake.

Jeff and Madeline said...

First I want to say that I cried much of the way through this and I am not the type that is sentimental. All I could think of was M and all she is questioning/needing/hoping for with answers that just aren't there. I hope our country will lose this practice of sealing records from adoptees--yes, I agree that it is barbaric. My second hope is that China will also open its doors to us to search in any way we can without interference or retribution to birth families.
I don't know if it is because we are in the search currently that I am so in touch with my feelings and M's or if it is just a level of sadness that adoptive parents--obviously not that fool Atwood--feel when they watch their children in pain due to the unknown. Whatever the reason I am starting my fight to help domestic adoptees because I have a say with my vote.
Finally, how the hell do we get rid of that idiot Atwood from his false position of representing adoption? He is so insecure as an adoptive parent that he places his insecurity and rights over the three people that existed before him--birthmother, birthfather, and most importantly child! I also agree that I don't care about bp's privacy over that of the child--if you didn't want possible strings later, you should have aborted. That being said, it seems that the majority of birthparents don't mind being contacted and as stated it is a feeling that they have no right to search that leads them to remain in the shadows.

Ash said...

She makes several great points. I can understand the concerns associated with keeping the documents sealed from young children, but Courts have failed to realized the far reaching implications of keeping those documents sealed from adults who have been adopted. I think after the age of 16, Courts should consider unsealing those documents in order to allow the adopted children some sort of closure and more importantly, knowledge about their overall circumstance (like family medical history) in order to make better life choices.