Adult adoptees in most of the advanced, industrialized nations of the world have unrestricted access to their original birth records as a matter of right. In contrast, adult adoptees in all but four states in the U.S.A. are forbidden access to their original birth certificates, unlike non-adopted adult citizens.

Archaic, Depression-Era laws created amended birth certificates, which replace the names of the adoptee's biological parents with those of the adoptive parents, and frequently falsify other birth information as well. The original records are permanently sealed in most states by laws passed during the McCarthy Era, a legacy of the culture of shame that stigmatized infertility, out-of-wedlock birth, and adoption.

In Scotland, adoptee records have been open since 1935, in England since 1975. New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, and parts of Australia are only a few of the many nations that do not prevent adult adoptees from accessing their own birth records. Why are they still sealed in most of the U.S.?

Well-funded lobbies representing certain adoption agencies and lawyers have a vested interest in keeping adoptee records closed. They are working in several states to pass a "Uniform Adoption Act" that would keep adoptees' birth records sealed for 99 years and in some instances criminalize searching for one's biological relatives. The unfounded fear of some adoptive parents that their adult children would reject them if they learned the identities of their birth parents has made them want to keep records sealed as well.

While many adoptees search for their biological relatives to discover the answers to questions regarding medical history, ethnicity, and family heritage, the majority do not search, for one reason or another. Nevertheless, all adoptees should be able to exercise their right to obtain the original government documents of their births. At issue is not search and reunion, but the constitutional rights of millions of American citizens. To continue to abrogate these rights is to perpetuate the stigmatization of illegitimacy and adoption, and the relegation of an entire class of citizens to second-class status.