Sir, – Further to "Adopted get right to know birth parents in new Bill", Front Page, July 20th), people who were adopted under Irish law already have a right to know their identity and that of their parents. The issue is that Ireland hasn't unconditionally upheld this right, to date. The proposed Adoption Bill should simply repeal the section of the cleverly worded 1952 Adoption Act which forbids people from seeing the index linking the child's birth certificate to the corresponding entry in the Adopted Children's Register, but does not preclude adopted people from having their birth certificates. The Bill also makes provision for birth certificates to be given to all adopted people.
It was only the policies and practices of adoption agencies which caused 50,000 people not to have a very public record, their birth certificate.
There is a big difference between the right to know one’s own name and one’s mother’s names (names of putative fathers were not listed without their permission) and actually knowing her, and the two issues – the right to know, versus the right to privacy – are not interchangeable and should not be confused.
Adopted people should never have been treated less favourably by the State, but, unfortunately, the proposed clause in the upcoming Adoption Bill will ensure that adopted people will still be “othered” and incorporates a proviso that they sign a statutory declaration obliging them to respect the wishes of birth parents who do not wish to be contacted. This is superfluous, as a legal process already exists for individuals not wishing to be contacted. Adopted people should not be treated any differently than any other person because of family status. – Yours, etc,
MICHELE SAVAGE,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – The Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill, being discussed in Cabinet this week, will be yet another insult to adopted people if enacted in its present form. It means adoptees still will not have an automatic right to their birth certificates.
Unlike any other Irish citizens, they will have to sign humiliating contact vetoes before they are “allowed” to see their own birth certificates.
If people are “abandoned” and fostered from babyhood, with no information about their birth parents, they have a right to their birth certificates at any age. It is only the fact of being adopted that denies adoptees an automatic right to their long-form birth certificates, unlike any other Irish citizens.
Many adopted people do not want to contact their birth parents. They simply want to know their own identities.
Also, a birth certificate without an adoption file is of little use. It is medical and background information that adoptees need. Quite simply, we want the same system as the UK has had for 40 years – automatic access to birth certificates and full adoption files at age 18. Anything less is an insult and a sham. – Yours, etc,
CARMEL HAYES,
Kilkenny.