Sandy Musser - Adoption Reform Activist & Author
 
 
Support and Promote
3 Primary Goals 
 
  • OPEN RECORDS
 
  • REUNITING FAMILIES
 
  • FAMILY PRESERVATION
 
 
For those not familiar with the sealed records controversy
or don't understand the urgent need for adoption reform, the following provides a capsulized overview. 
 
Adoption records, (also affecting step-parent adoptions), have been sealed in 48 of the 50 states since the early 40's  
 Only six states have open records as of this writing.
 
What do sealed records mean
and how do they affect us all?
 
  • It means that when an adoption takes place, the adoptees' records are
     are sealed "forever" causing, some believe, a form of ancestricide or 
     genocide. By virtue of an archaic adoption law, entire  family gene-     alogical histores have been wiped out.
 
  • It means that an entire segment of our population, known as "the adopted" are unable to have access to copies of their original birth certificates or other legal documents concerning the very essence of their own lives.
As adoption laws now stand, the 14th Amendment
of our Constitution  does not apply to adopted persons.
 
  • It means that adoptees are being denied basic God-given rights that
     the rest of us enjoy - our heritage, medical history, genealogy, & the
     ability to find the answer to the age old question - 'Who am I?'
 
  • It means birthparents who surrendered their children in good faith have had to suffer years of anquish wondering what happened to the child of their womb. Most were not told nor believed they were signing away their child "forever."
 
  • It means that adoptive parents are denied pertinent ongoing medical, genetic, and psychological information, so necessary in parenting an adopted child.
 
  • It means those who "facilitate" (arrange) adoptions have been (and continue to be ) free to perform unscrupulous deeds and then hide behind the confidentiality law; i.e. obtaining surrender papers from birthparents under false pretenses; telling adoptive parents that the child they are adopting has been abandoned and unwanted; altering and falsifying (aka 'doctoring') adoption documents, and selling babies to the highest bidder. The list goes on. 
 
  • It means that individuals involved in search work who assist in reconnecting loved ones separated by adoption, are putting themselves at risk because of  the "sealed records" and "confidentiality laws" -- the same laws that PROTECT the agencies and the State from their scrupulous deeds and lucrative baby-selling business.
 
 
 
Adoption is a
Civil Rights Issue
 
On July 28 1868 the 14th Amendment was ratified giving the Federal Government the right to intervene when states and local governments deprive citizens of their rights.
 
This crucial amendment has become the basis for all the Civil Rights legislation
in the last 125 years. 
  
 Since adoptees as a class are denied basic God-given birth rights which every other citizen enjoys, this is clearly a Civil 
Rights issue and therefore applicable under the
 14th Amendment. 
 
*See below
 
*The 14th Amendment
 
 "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
 
No state shall make or en-force any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any persons of life, liberty or due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
 
Therefore We Propose:
 
  •      An immediate Federal Mandate that would super- cede state laws based upon the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment, providing equal access under the law.     
 
  • This mandate would allow adoptees, birthparents, adop-tive parents, siblings & other extended family members to have access to one another.
   
  • We must sign the UN Treaty on Children's Rights. Our own United States has not signed this treaty which emphasizes that every child should have knowledge of, and access to, their birth family. This Treaty was adopted by the United Nations on November 20, 1989 and has been ratified by 193 countries.  The United States of America and  Somalia are the only two countries that have not ratified this Treaty. Why??
 
 
 
 
 Policy Statement
 
 
  • The "Privacy Act" was in-tended to protect individuals from government interven-tion into their lives. Privacy cannot and should not be imposed when it concerns family and kin because it is in direct conflict with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
 
  • Rights of those affected by adoption are characterized in The Articles of  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -  (the Covenant of 1948 of Amnesty Int'l) amd should be honored and upheld.
 
  • Adoption injustices in the U.S. are a national disgrace and should be opposed in every possible way; particu- larly the altering and falsifi-cation of legal documents which allows baby-selling to continue and flourish. It's way past time for us to put an end to this outrageous prac-tice of sealed, secret, closed adoptions.
  
  •  If we are truly the Pro-Family Society we claim to be, then we can no longer support family separation caused by the current closed sealed adoption system.  Guardianship and Family Preservation measures should be put into place without further delay. 
 
  • Adoption as it is currently practiced in the U.S. is  no less than the selling of human beings (aka baby-selling) and therefore repugnant to most citizens by whatever name it is called.
 
  • It is time for America's State & Private agencies to get out of the lucrative baby-selling business. 
 
 
 
Every child has the inalienable right to know and connect with their family of origin if they choose to do so.
 
 
 
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