Letters: Adoptee argues that confidentiality vital to success of adoption system

Through House Bill 450, the Legislature decided that it knows what's best for adoption — even more so than the brave women who choose confidential adoption.

I am an attorney, and more humbly, an adoptee. I met my birth parents 18 years after I was placed for adoption — after I received a call from the law firm facilitating my adoption that my birth mother was interested in an update. I loved my birth mother for her decision and would have never sought her identifying information without her consent.

Adoption confidentiality was a right ensured by Louisiana law for women who choose confidential adoption as a part of their adoption plans.

Now, adoptee advocates have framed this debate as an “equal rights” issue and made emotional appeals that they, as adoptees, are “wards of the state” which has somehow “deprived them of their origin.” These advocates have also advanced red herrings, arguing that because most birth mothers choose open adoption, that somehow defeats the fact that some choose confidential adoption.

These advocates also argue they are not seeking their birth certificates for reunion purposes, but simultaneously oppose redaction of their birth parents’ names on the certificates.

Adoptees, through HB 450, will discover the identities of their birth mothers — women who did not want their identities shared and who courageously chose confidential adoption.

Adoptees’ rights should not trump their biological mothers’ rights. These adoptees should focus their efforts on the legislatively established solution to this issue — Louisiana’s Voluntary Registry System.

DAVID SCOTTON

attorney

New Orleans

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