|
|
|
 3 PRIMARY GOALS SINCE 1976 For those not familar with the sealed records controversy or the 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 a few are open as of this writing. What exactly does that mean and how does it affect all of us? - 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 genealogi- cal histores have been wiped out. As adoption laws now stand, the 14th Amendment 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, our medical history, our genealogy, and 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" 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 only the agencies and the State from their scrupulous deeds and lucrative baby-selling business.
|
Adoption 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: - 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??
|
 Our Policy Statement - Those who we term "birth family" are already family, and therefore should be pre- served as such.
- 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 Univer-sal Declaration of Human Rights - (the Covenant of 1948 of Amnesty Intl) 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
