Over the weekend, State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz's proposal to open adoptees' birth records sparked a story in the State Journal Register and attention on Illinois Review here.
Looking a little more into HB 4623's text, Rep. Feigenholtz hopes to change 12 different sections of adoption law, some of which will make not only the adoptee's original birth certificate accessible, but court documents and any other records surrounding the adoption, as well.
Thinking more about this, it occurred that a dilemma is likely to arise for same sex couples whose adopted children will be especially curious as to who their birth parents were and the circumstances surrounding their births. Two mothers or two fathers listed on a birth certificate will demand more information.
At the same time Rep. Feigenholtz's adoption record bill is moving forward, so is an effort to establish same sex civil unions in Illinois. As same sex couples, multiple relationships, civil unions, domestic partnerships, multiple marriages and other situations become legal and more common, so will the involved children's roots become more difficult to trace.
And as fertilization techniques become more and more advanced, birth parent situations become more complicated. Will an adoptee have access to the medical records concerning surrogate mothers, artificial insemination donors, and in vitro fertilization egg donors, as well? Those persons will no longer be able to remain anonymous, as their genetic traits will be pertinent information to the resulting children.
Rep. Feigenholtz's bill opens a Pandora's box of issues concerning the history of adoption. Any legal unions, registered domestic partnerships, medical history -- anything that affects a person's history will also need to be available sooner or later.
And what we do as adults affects no one else . . . or so we like to think.
