'It is a basic human right to know the truth about one’s origins'

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.

Dear Senators,
I urge you to please consider supporting SB 977 bill extending Public Act 14-133 to include all adult adoptees so that there can be a dignify, orderly way to manage the adult adoptee/birth family search and reunion process.

I know and respect that some of you have been on the other side of this issue in years past but now, with the availability of simple DNA testing, this whole issue has been turned on its head. People are now literally finding their extended birth families on AncestryDNA and FaceBook and, on their own, cold calling and approaching 1st/2nd Cousins to meet! Typically these extended cousins have no idea that their relatives even had a child that they gave up for adoption. Clearly everyone agrees that this ad hoc approach does not treat the birth mother or the adult adoptee with the dignity that they deserve.

Note: It is with that in mind that, as a professional searcher, I always assist and insist that adult adoptees contact their birth mothers/fathers directly.

It is a basic human right to know the truth about one’s origins. Our state government should no longer discriminate against adoptees by depriving them of this right which is routinely available to all non- adopted citizens. This information assists adoptees in obtaining their current, updated family medical history which is necessary to protect their health and the health of their children.

John F. Suggs, Founder and President, Family Orchard

Stamford