Local Voices
Adoptee rights are human rights, adoptive parents say, urging support for adoption reform laws
Branford couple says current law blocking some adult adoptees from accessing original birth certificates is discriminatory
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.
My name is Catherine Shannon. My husband, Tim and I live in Branford, Connecticut; and we are the proud parents of five adopted children.
I strongly support an amendment to Senate Bill 977 that would restore the right of every adopted adult citizen in Connecticut to obtain a copy of his or her original, true birth certificate. I urge the committee to approve the bill with the amendment.
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The committee and the legislature should restore this right, which would build on a law passed in 2014. That law has worked successfully and as intended and, most importantly, the sky has not fallen.
Adopted persons should not be treated any differently than every other ordinary person who can obtain his or her original birth certificate.
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As parents who are medical professionals, restoring this right is vitally important in order to have a better understanding and make informed choices regarding the health of adoptees. Adoptive parents and adoptees need to be able to access their biological family medical health history that can only be obtained from biological history.
Connecticut lawmakers have the opportunity and the responsibility to allow access and transparency for these adult adoptees. It is their human and civil right to have this information.
Thank you for your consideration and support.
Catherine and Tim Shannon, Branford
