Sir, - It is important, I think, to put the adoption issue into its true historical perspective. When adoption was being debated in the 1948-52 period in this country, it was the liberal argument that it was kinder and better all around to suppress information about the biological parents. The Adoption Society (Ireland) advocated that the birth certificates of adopted, illegitimate infants be falsified. One of the main opponents to this measure was the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Charles McQuaid, who said that those advocating adoption "in their zeal to safeguard the rights of the adopting parent, tend to overlook the fact that the natural mother and child had rights too, which must equally be safeguarded in any legislation".
To purge the "stigma" of illegitimacy was thought "enlightened" by liberal voices at the time, many of whom advanced their views through the letter columns of The Irish Times. - Yours, etc.,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2.