Access to original birth certificate would take the guesswork out of necessary medical care for this adoptee

Editor's note: This is one in an ongoing series of posts spotlighting support for our continued effort to provide adult adoptees born in Connecticut access to their original birth certificates. The testimony featured in this series was submitted to the state Legislature earlier this year in support of proposed legislation that would have restored the right of adult adoptees adopted before Oct. 1, 1983, to access their original birth certificate. (Post-1983 adoptees had this right restored in 2014.) The letters are published with the authors' permission. Sign up for our newsletter at www.accessconnecticut.org if you want to help us end discrimination against adoptees.

To Whom it May Concern:
My name is Michelle Faraci, and I was adopted from the Philippines in 1981. Even though I was born in another country, I have no recollection of my biological family, as my biological mother left me at the hospital. After I was abandoned at the hospital, the staff reached out to the social media to locate her. The radio and television stations aired my story, but they were not successful. I was taken to an orphanage in Manila, and I waited there for a year and a half to come to the United States.

My adoptive parents have provided me with the best care and love I could ever ask for. However, I always had a need to find out about my family health history. It is sort of embarrassing to go to a new doctor or specialist, and fill out that I don't have any family health history, due to being adopted. So, I leave that part of the intake form blank.

I have many health issues. As an ADHD, Bi-Polar, OCD, person with anxiety and depression, as well as other mental and physical health issues, I struggle every day in trying to get up each morning to start my day. Even though I am medicated, I find that it would have been helpful to know my family health history because it would assist the medical professionals in helping with my treatment.

I was evaluated in the Philippines way back in 1980, 1981, when I was just a baby. I have my evaluation that the medical professionals filled out at the time, and it was about my behaviors and my difficulties in communication with the care givers there. When I was 20, I was evaluated again, and I was diagnosed with the above mental health issues. That was in 2000. Now, in 2017, I am still seeing a therapist and an APRN to get my medications to keep me stable. I truly believe with all my heart that if I knew any medical health history, I could spend less time worrying about what health issues or concerns that lie ahead.

If this law were to go into effect, I'd believe it would eliminate a lot of the guess work medical professionals would have to endure in order to treat those who need help. The evaluations and treatment of those who were adopted would benefit not just the medical professionals, but the adoptive parents because it would put their minds at ease too.

Please consider passing Senate Bill 977 into a law. This would make the lives of many families easier, and less stressful. In today's society, one less worry can make a world of a difference. After all, those who are adopted should have the same rights as those who have birth certificates and background knowledge of their family and health history. As I've learned in school, "Knowledge is Power." You have the power to make this Bill into a law.

Sincerely,
Michelle Faraci