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| Steven Hamblin says while he wouldn’t trade his life for anything, he wants to know more about where he came from. |
JACKSON, MO (KFVS) - Giving a child up for adoption can be a difficult decision for some birth parents.
It
can also be difficult for some children when they grow up and want to
reconnect with their biological families. However, that could change
under one Missouri proposal.
Right now it's very difficult for adults in Missouri who were adopted as children to get their own original birth certificate.
"I look at faces. I used to look at yearbooks from SEMO,” Steven Hamblin said.
Hamblin was adopted at birth.
"My non-identifying information states that my father was a college student with an engineering degree,” Hamblin said.
He said while he wouldn't trade his life for anything, he wants to know more about where he came from.
"I
want to search and find my birth family. I want to know what my
identity is as far as German, Irish, whatever I might be,” Hamblin said.
He
said access to his birth certificate, which includes his birth parents'
names, isn't only about peace-of-mind but could lead him to more.
"It
doesn't open up for my family medical history but it's a step towards
being able to open your adoption records,” Hamblin said.
A bill going through the state legislature would make it easier to get that information.
Through
an application process, House Bill 647, would put Hamblin's original
certificate in his hands for good, but some say that has its downsides.
"This
would even open up records for adoptions 30 to 40 years old when women
at that time were told nobody will ever know about this,” Evelyn
Beussink, the assistant director at
Lutheran Family and Children's Services, said.
It's a move Beussink and agency director Leisa Blisset say could cause privacy issues.
"Could be crisis pregnancy maybe from rape so they don't want that information to get out,” Blisset said. They say they want to respect all parties involved in adoptions and know how emotional this issue can be.
"It could cause a lot of difficulties both the privacy concerns and the concerns about the trauma,” Beussink said.
As for Hamblin, he said it's not an issue of privacy but of rights.
"It'll
be a sense of relief. Right now, the one I have is a Xerox copy and I
can see the staple in the corner where my original is folded behind it,”
Hamblin said.
There
is another bill that deals with this same issue. Beussink and Blisset
say they support House Bill 1112, which would allow adoptees their birth
certificate with permission from their birth parents.
However Hamblin said that is not enough; that process is still too long.
SOURCE
NOTE and COMMENT: HB 1112 would make it so the adopted person has to go through the same
process that they do now to get their records. This means that thousands
of adopted adults would get nothing when the court cannot find their
file or the appointed searcher cannot locate the biological parent even
though the adoptee is charged and average of $300-$500 for such a
search. Adopted adults should have the right to their own information.
If the biological parent chooses to Not have a relationship, then at
least the adopted person would have closure and the chance to ask for
Medical information: Comment from Heather Dodd
HBO 1112 is an agency bill that mirrors current law which does not
follow best practices in adoption. HB 647 establishes that adult adopted
Missourians have the same right to their original birth certificates as
non-adopted adults. (That one is the one we need and want...Trace)
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