Adoptee rights have far-reaching effects

I, like most women who surrendered a child to closed adoption, support the right of adoptees to learn who they are. Data from the nine states that allow access to this information is clear; those states do not have higher abortion rates nor do they have lower adoption rates.

Social media and consumer DNA testing has resulted in adoptees contacting relatives of birthparents in an attempt to find the birthmother’s name. It is far more private for the birthparents for the adoptee to get the names directly from the original birth certificate.

Your editorial labels this issue as a “zero sum game,” pitting the rights of the parents against the rights of the adoptee. In reality, the secrecy impacts the children and grandchildren of the adoptee, who have a permanent break in their lineage and family history. Eileen McQuade, Delray Beach (past president, American Adoption Congress)