Bethany Home adoptee calls for reform on right to access birth records
A PENSIONER who is still searching for her birth mother after she was adopted through the controversial Bethany Home in Rathgar is backing calls to allow adopted people access to their birth records.
Lorraine Jackson, 66, attended a recent memorial service for the 222 neglected children who died at the mother and baby home between 1922 and 1949. Their graves were only discovered in 2010.
Children in the home were subjected to physical abuse and serious neglect, which contributed to the high mortality rate there.
A sculpture unveiled in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, marked the end of a campaign by survivors of the home for recognition.
Ms Jackson wants legislation that would allow adopteess to access information about their identity, such as their birth certs. A conference will next month discuss the Adoption (Tracing and Information) Bill, which is being prepared by Government to underpin the rights of adoptees seeking information. Ahead of the conference, Ms Jackson said: ‘I would like to have my medical records at least. I have been officially searching since 1990 and getting nowhere. It’s ridiculous you can’t find your information, yet in England [it’s] no problem.’
Ms Jackson was born on March 17, 1948, at the Royal Jubilee Hospital Belfast. Three weeks later, she was brought to the Bethany Home where she stayed for nine months. I am still trying to find her. I have a social worker and we have been trying. The law provides for my mother’s privacy, it doesn’t provide for me,’ she said.