Legislation sponsored by Senator Diane Allen, (R-7), which allows adult adoptees access to their original birth certificate and other related information, and sets up a mutual consent voluntary adoption registry, passed the Senate today. The new measure would also apply to the direct descendants of deceased adoptees or their parents.
“It’s important that adults who were adopted have access to vitally important family medical information,” Allen said. “This kind of information could dramatically affect the quality of an adoptee’s life if left undiscovered. Those adoptee’s with access to their family medical histories would be able to treat medical conditions before they become chronic diseases, or unknowingly pass them along to their children.”
The new legislation would allow the birth parent of an adoptee to submit a written, notarized request of non-disclosure to the State Registrar that would prohibit the State Registrar from supplying the name of the birth parent. Should non-disclosure be requested the birth parents would be required to complete a family medical history, to the best of their knowledge within 60 days, and update the medical history every ten years until the age of forty and every five years thereafter. Should the birth parent fail to complete the required medical disclosure forms the order of non-disclosure would be revoked. The bill also appropriates $90, 000 to be spent on public service messages to increase awareness and to encourage greater participation in the program.
“It is time that we amend the archaic law that denies adoptees’ access to their heritage,” Allen stated. “As long as we honor the promises that we made to birth parents, adult adoptees and the children of adoptees should be allowed to have information that could possibly save their lives.”
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November 25, 2008
