Adoptee Rights Coalition - the Fight to obtain our Original Birth Certificates: National Adoptee Rights Group Travels To Illinois ...

Adoptee Rights Coalition - the Fight to obtain our Original Birth Certificates: National Adoptee Rights Group Travels To Illinois ...: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE National Adoptee Rights Group Travels To Illinois to Free Original Birth Certificates American Adoptees ...

One Option Means No Choice: The Walking Wombs

One Option Means No Choice: The Walking Wombs: A stone faced counselor sits next to a sobbing young mother who had just given birth less than 48 hours earlier. The counselor is hold...

Only one cultural identity should be stressed in adoption process ~ ???

Only one cultural identity should be stressed in adoption process | NewsOK.com

"Only one cultural identity should be stressed in the adoption process — placing a child in a culture of family love and support."

As an adult adoptee, I must respectfully disagree with this editorial.  If we truly want to honor the best interests of children, cultural identity should be seen as paramount in adoption, simply because it is a strong component in human and identity development.  Not only cultural identity, but original identity.

 ....This story, however, is more about a culture of corruption....and it is about family.

 This father was kept out of the decision regarding his own daughter's adoption and began formally contesting the decision when she was just an newborn. He was pushed out like many fathers are by the adoption industry. They should have done the right thing when Veronica was a tiny baby and not stripped her biological father's wishes and rights away just because she was a precious commodity in a supply/demand business. Justice isn't always popular, but I'm proud of this father for fighting for his daughter and for the rights of natural parents everywhere.

Adoption law is filled with conflict of interest issues and human rights violations because of the money involved and the need for babies.  It strips the adoptee of their identity rights.  Adoption reform is long past due.

"The Child Welfare Information Gateway reports that Oklahoma had the third-highest adoption rate among the 50 states in 2008."       

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It is common practice in contested adoptions that the adoption industry will litigate and postpone court hearings as long as possible so the child will remain in the adoptive home long enough for them to use the "best interest of the child" argument ~ saying that it would be wrong to "rip the child away" from the only home it has ever known. This is unethical. Adoption law is written not to protect the best interests of children or families at all...but for the consumers (adoptive parents) and the adoption business itself. Adoption is a billion-dollar unregulated industry in the transfer of human-beings. 

Adult adoptees are the only Americans stripped of their true identity, biological heritage and genealogy because of archaic "sealed records" laws in adoption. 

Six U.S. states have passed legislation (supported by The Child Welfare League of America) restoring the unconditional right of adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates. 

Read more: http://newsok.com/only-one-cultural-identity-should-be-stressed-in-adoption-process/article/3692190#ixzz21wV1a1iu

What They Knew But Ignored...

Origins Inc. What They Knew But Ignored http://www.originsnsw.com/mentalhealth/

Known Consequences of Adoption to the Child What They Knew But Ignored for over 50 Years. The Psychology of the Adopted Child 1943 - 1943 - 1943 The National Committee for Mental Health Journal on Mental Hygiene. New York, by Florence Clothier M.D.,1943 The child who does not grow up with his own biological parents, or does not even know them or anyone of his own blood, is an individual who has lost the thread of family continuity. A deep identification with our forebears, as experienced originally in the mother-child relationship, gives us our most fundamental security. The child's repeated discoveries that the mother from whom he has been biologically separated will continue to warm him, nourish him, and protect him pours into the very structure of his personality a stability and a reassurance that he is safe, even in this new alien world. Every adopted child, at some time in his development, has been deprived of this primitive relationship with his mother. This trauma and the severing of the individual from his racial antecedents lie at the core of what is peculiar to the psychology of the adopted child. The adopted child presents all the complications in social and emotional developments seen in the own child. But the ego of the adopted child, in addition to all the normal demands made upon it, is called upon to compensate for wound left by the loss of the biological mother. Later on this appears as an unknown void, separating the adopted child from his fellows whose blood ties bind them to the past as well as to the future. It is pertinent never to lose sight of the fact that no matter how lost to him his natural parents may be, the adopted child carries stamped in every cell of his body genes derived from his forebears. The primitive stuff of which he is made and which he will pass on to future generations was determined finally at the time of his conception. . . The implications of this for the psychology of the adopted child are of the utmost significance. The child who is placed with adoptive parents at or soon after birth misses the mutual and deeply satisfying mother-child relationship, the roots of which lie in that deep area of the personality where the physiological and psychological are merged. Both for the child and for the natural mother, that period is part of a biological sequence, and it is to be doubted whether the relationship to it's post-partum mother, in it's subtler effects, can be replaced by even the best of substitute mothers. But those subtle effects lie so deeply buried in the personality that, in light of our present knowledge, we cannot evaluate them. We do know more about the trauma that an older baby suffers when he is separated from his mother, with whom his relationship is no longer merely parasitic, but toward whom he has developed active social strivings. For some children, and in some stages of development, this severing of the budding social relationship can cause irreparable harm. The child's willingness to sacrifice instinctive gratifications and infantile pleasures for the sake of love relationships has proved a bitter disillusionment, and he may be loath to give himself into a love relationship again.' The Adoption of Newborns Is it professional neglect or child abuse? Clothier continued: `We also have reason to believe that if an adoptive placement is made in earliest infancy with parents who accept and love the child, there is a maximum probability that the child's emotional and social development will parallel that of the own child, even though the adopted child has to forego infancy's first and greatest protection from tension. The child who is placed in infancy has the opportunity of passing through his Oedipal development in relationship to his adoptive parents without an interruption that, in the child's phantasy, may amount to the most severe of punishments.' Having acknowledged their inability to evaluate the trauma in severing the biological connection between a mother and child at birth, in 1943, `in light of their present knowledge', failed to inspire any research into the trauma, and so the subsequent emotional wellbeing and future development of millions of adopted infants world-wide, has relied entirely upon wishful thinking. Mental health experts around the world then spent the next fifty years conducting major research, and thousands of psychiatric case studies into the social dysfunction of the adopted child, trying to find explanations for the emotional complications causing adopted children to be over-represented in mental health facilities and clinics around the world. They blamed `bad blood', genetic pre-dispositions in the deviant mother, bad pre-natal care, difficult births, hereditary factors, neurotic adopters, that adoptive parents were more inclined to send the child to psychiatric facilities, bad parenting, separation from foster parents, genealogical bewilderment, attention deficit disorders, personality disorders, schizophrenia, etc. Etc. And although much research has been conducted into the harmful effects of separating an animal from it's mother at birth, never once has the trauma caused by the interference of the biological sequence of birth between a human mother and child even been considered let alone researched. However, according to Florence Clothier - the trauma suffered by an infant separated from his mother at birth has always been known. It is the degree of that trauma which remains unknown because it has suited the fabric of society to avoid and ignore it.

Adoptees Up Against Backward Laws Protest at Natio...

National Adoption Month 2012: Adoptees Up Against Backward Laws Protest at Natio...:  by David Phelps and Joyce Bahr, Members of New York’s “Unsealed Initiative,” having ended a legislative lobby session in Albany for the ...

Push on to open birth records to adult adoptees

Excellent article (link below) on the national adoption reform trend to restore the unconditional right of adult adoptees access to their original (unfalsified) birth certificates.  The Child Welfare League of America, Holt International, and The American Adoption Congress all strongly support this legislation. 

Push on to open Connecticut birth records to adult adoptees:  The Middletown Press, CT

"Geographies of Kinship" ~ A Documentary

                                                  Deann Borshay Liem is a documentary
                                                               filmmaker and adoptee.

Her first two films, "First Person Plural" and "In TheMatter of Cha Jung Hee" are about her own adoption from Korea into the Borshay family in Fremont California, and her subsequent search to find the girl she was switched with before she came to the US.

"Geographies of Kinship" (her third documentary, currently in production) follows five Korean adoptees from the U.S. and Europe on their journeys to reconnect with their birth country and piece
together their past.

Their riveting stories serve as a springboard for exploring the history of transnational adoptions from Korea, from the 1950s to the present. 

Please visit her website to see a clip from this amazing work and help spread the word and support for this project! 

The Forgotten Solution to the Abortion Debate?

"Adoption statistics are hard to track, since states are not necessarily required to report domestic adoptions. However, the numbers are grim, and much of it is owing to abortion. If true, such a mindset is troubling. How could we be so hostile to life, particularly given that "there are up to 36 couples waiting for every one baby placed for adoption"? The data is admittedly sparse, but sufficient."

See the entire article here:

The Forgotten Solution to the Abortion Debate

Thoughts after reading this article ~ 

If our society would:

1) Encourage, honor & support the mother/child bond, and support young women who find themselves pregnant;

2) Remove the monetary element in adoption, which clouds it with unethical practices & gross conflict of interest & coercion;

3) Stop coveting infants in an economically driven supply/demand based business; and

4) Restore the identity rights of adult adoptees - then, and only then, will our society heal. 

You say adoption is the answer to abortion, but it actually is just another arm of the same problem in this country...the total disregard of the sacred mother/child/familial connection...
 
Some genealogists predict that within another 4 generations NO American's family tree will be accurate due to the business of adoption, sealed & falsified (amended) birth certificates, and the corrupt businesses of adoption and assisted reproduction (donor gametes). 

Children are a commodity and until we stop this commodification of human-beings, our society will not realize that the killing of unborn children is wrong either.

An Apology: It's About Time

An apology to forced adoption birth mothers: it's about time

By Patricia'>http://theconversation.edu.au/profiles/patricia-fronek-7063">Patricia Fronek, Griffith University and Denise'>http://theconversation.edu.au/profiles/denise-cuthbert-10553">Denise  Cuthbert, RMIT University


A national'>http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/forced-adoption-apology-a-significant-step-for-healing-20120622-20tod.html">national apology to Australian mothers who experienced forced adoptions was announced by Attorney General Nicola Roxon last weekend.


This apology will follow those made to the Stolen'>http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/progserv/engagement/Pages/national_apology.aspx">Stolen Generations, Forgotten'>http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/transcript-of-kevin-rudds-apology-to-forgotten-australians/story-e6frf7l6-1225798255277">Forgotten Australians and Lost'>http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/0910/ChildMigrants">Lost Innocents. Overseas birth mothers affected by forced adoptions should also be on our radar.


On the 18th July, South Australia will apologise to Australian mothers whose children were removed. The Western Australian government, the Sisters of Mercy, the Catholic Church, the Uniting Church and Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital have already offered apologies.


Planning for the national apology is underway. Australian mothers have worked hard to bring these breaches of human rights into public consciousness. They have also been among the first to recognise that their experiences and treatment by individuals, institutions and governments are strikingly similar to those of birth mothers in overseas adoptions.


During the 2005'>http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=fhs/./adoption/media.htm">2005 Inquiry into Overseas Adoption, Australian mothers reminded us that overseas mothers feel the same grief and life-long consequences of forced separation from their children as they do.


Research into the circumstances of overseas adoptions tells us that children adopted overseas are taken away because the mothers were single, widowed or divorced or most often simply poor.


Government policies (or the absence of them), disasters, child trafficking and the private market provide the means to separate many children from their families. Resources are directed at institutionalisation and child removal for adoption instead of social policies for health and welfare, education, community development and the most basic safety nets necessary for family preservation in times of crises.


Overseas birth mothers are finding their voice. The'>http://koreanunwedmoms.blogspot.com.au/">The Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network, Mindeulae, Truth'>http://justicespeaking.wordpress.com/objective-%EB%AA%A9%EC%A0%81/">Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK) and other organisations are influencing governments in South Korea.


Birth mothers, adoptees and in some cases adoptive parents are working together to effect change in South Korea where vast numbers of children have been adopted overseas since the 1950s. A Korean 60'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xnSuTNPAwE">60 Minutes broadcast exposed corrupt practices and abuses of birth mothers on Korean television in 2005.


In more impoverished countries, such as Romania and Ethiopia, birth mothers continue to experience breaches of their basic rights and lack of support. Many birth mothers, like adoptive parents and adoptees before them, are connecting with each other internationally via the internet. They share their stories, achievements and support.


Social workers and other professionals are addressing human rights and social justice concerns and supporting family reunification in Asia and the South Americas.


Australian society has changed. Apologies to groups harmed by past practices tell us clearly that these practices are no longer acceptable in 2012. Some commentators might argue that past abuses happened because we were unaware of the consequences. In Australia today, we can’t claim ignorance of the circumstances of overseas birth mothers.


A growing body of research tells us that lack of options, coercion, and unethical and illegal practices do exist. U.S. legal academic, David Smolin, warns that the position of birth mothers is the “elephant in the room” whenever overseas adoption is talked about.


More than 10,000 children have lost their first families and been adopted into Australia since the 1970s. As yet there is no consistent national approach to post-adoption support, including assisting adoptees searching for their birth families.


Australia is leading the way in apologies to Australian birth mothers. Governments and birth mothers in the UK, Canada and elsewhere are watching events in Australia closely. Overseas birth mothers should also be on the Australian radar.


We will be called at some time in the future to account for our complicity and offer apologies to those affected by what we already know.

Patricia Fronek is a member of NICAAG (National Intercountry Adoption Advisory Group).


Denise Cuthbert is one of three Chief Investigators on an Australian Research Council funded project, A history of adoption in Australia.
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        http://theconversation.edu.au/an-apology-to-forced-adoption-birth-mothers-its-about-time-7875" />
        This article was originally published at The'>http://theconversation.edu.au">The Conversation.
          Read the original'>http://theconversation.edu.au/an-apology-to-forced-adoption-birth-mothers-its-about-time-7875">original article.
       

Freezers Are For Food

"The conception industry takes its cues from the adoption industry -- just because they CAN move human offspring around like so many packaged goods they assume it causes no harm or danger."

For entire article link here:  Freezers Are For Food

Science Daily: Childhood adversity increases risk for depression

"What's important about this study is that it identifies a group of people who are prone to have depression and inflammation at the same time.

That group of people experienced major stress in childhood, often related to poverty, having a parent with a severe illness, or lasting separation from family. As a result, these individuals may experience depressions that are especially difficult to treat."

Entire article here:  Childhood adversity increases risk for depression and chronic inflammation

California Multiple Parents Bill: Proposed Legislation Would Allow Children To Have Three Or More Parents

This proposed law only proves to reinforce the ridiculousness of falsified (amended) birth certificates in the first place.

Every American deserves the right to an ACCURATE birth certificate, not one that lists "legal" parents. A "Certificate of Live Birth" is a government document that should be required to ONLY list those who actually give birth and/or provide the true DNA...that would ensure every individual in America the right to KNOW their true identity ~ DNA/parentage/genealogical heritage.

This basic human right is STRIPPED from adoptees and donor-conceived persons. If a "legal" parent needs to be named, it should not be done on a birth certificate...

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost