State should not change agreements from past adoptions

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Many women who have put young children up for adoption in Maine did so expecting that those children would never know their birth mothers' identities.

A misguided bill under consideration in the Legislature seeks to change that.

The bill would permit adoptees who are 18 or older to see their original birth certificates, allowing them to learn the names of their biological parents -- even if those parents do not want the information known.

Adoptees who want to contact their birth parents are supporting the bill. Adoption agencies and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland oppose it.

We oppose it, too -- at least as written.

We agree with the diocese that long-standing pledges of confidentiality that adoption agencies have made to birth mothers should be preserved. The state should not change the rules -- and undo promises -- in the middle of the game.

Church officials say that at the very least, the bill, sponsored by Rep. Gerald M. Davis, R-Falmouth, should be amended to require that birth mothers consent before adoptees can get the records.

That makes sense.

Supporters of the bill claim the diocese's proposal would make the bill unworkable because the state does not have the staffing and other resources to search for adoptees' birth mothers.

Proponents also say that promises of secrecy made to birth mothers were not legal, and that they date back to when it was considered shameful to be unmarried and pregnant.

Even if promises of secrecy cannot be enforced under the law, the state has an ethical obligation to preserve agreements made with birth mothers.

It would be unjust for legislators to decide suddenly that life-altering arrangements -- some made decades ago -- can be dissolved so birth mothers' lives could be opened up in ways they thought would never happen.

Under current state law, many adoptees who were born in Maine have access only to altered birth certificates that bear their adoptive parents' names.

Adoptees are allowed to go to court to petition to open their adoption records, but are often unable to get their original birth certificates and other documents that would identify their biological parents. In some cases, they are told they must have a birth parent's permission to see the records, but such permission is tough to get because the court is not staffed or equipped to locate birth mothers.

We are respectful of and sympathetic to the wishes and needs of adults who were put up for adoption as children. Many want to know more about their pasts. They want to know who they are and where they came from. Some say they should know more about their birth families' medical heritage, including susceptibility to certain illnesses.

While these are legitimate concerns, the answer is not for Maine legislators to breach privacy agreements that adoption agencies and, in some cases, the state helped arrange over the years.

Davis' bill could face a public hearing next month. We urge lawmakers and others to remember that many mothers who have put young children up for adoption did so with an understanding: Those children would never know their birth mothers' identities.

The state would be exceeding acceptable boundaries by changing the rules now.