Why does adoption law itself show that there is no birthparent anonymity?

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I remember some opponents to a New Jersey open records bill stating that NJ law supports the birth parent right to privacy, confidentiality, anonymity (three different things that are used interchangeably). They cited certain NJ Statutes - which I looked up.

The cited statutes were all about the sealing of adoption records (on adoption, not relinquishment) and creation of the amended birth certificate.

So, even when someone actually cites a state law supporting birth parent (flavor of the month) anonymity - the law they cite says nothing of the kind!...Show more

I don't know where you found the law that says if an adoption fails then the adopted parents return the child. This isn't happening all over the US. As far as father's rights there is non. Even if the father signs the register in the state time limits his child could be taken for a real long time.
Things are not going to change until adoption agencies loses all the power they have. Most adoption might be done right and all is good. Adoption agencies can even have where a man's child sealed in court records when he's asking where his son is this really happened ,at the point where the father asked the child was 3 months old . This father asked over and over again then finally found out when the child was 16 months old.

So I never see where adoptees will ever get their records until adoption agencies lose some of their powers...Show more

I'm a birthmom. Closed adoption in 1972. Unwed, pregnant teen. Boy friends parents were shamed by what we did, they wanted an abortion, it was illegal and too late. We were told that she would be better off with an older married couple. No one was willing to help. WE WERE COWARDS and did what we were told. They figured with no baby their son would find a more suitable wife. They thought I came from the wrong side of the tracks. Ha ha on them, we married 1 1/2 years later and we have been married 37 years. In 1977 we had a son. In 2001 we found our daughter, my inlaws were not happy and thought we should have let it be, but they have come around. They had to overcome the embarrassment of telling their friends and family. My Mom was a single mom and didn't have much input, she is thrilled to have her granddaughter in her life. We did not have good guidance through our whole ordeal. At that time they were no statistics on the ramifications of how adoption would impact our lives. We were told that we would "get over it" that she would never know or care that we had abandoned her. Lies. I suffered for years before I got counseling. She is in counseling. I lived the secret and lies of adoption for 29 1/2 years. You are going to get a lot of stories on here and this is just mine....Show more

The ADOPTION law does not address anonymity except by addressing what court documents can and cannot be sealed. It is the law that protects sealed court documents that then protects the anonymity of the biological parents IF they requested the relinquishment and adoption be sealed. Records CAN be unsealed if done in the ways the law perscribes, which is what adoptees should do. Then a judge (an impartial observer) has the ability to decide whose "need" is more pressing....Show more

There is no right to birth parent annonymity. In fact Court rulings in Oregon and Tenessee state just that.

Sealed records are a remnant of the past that need to be done away with in our day and age. If people researched the original purpose of sealing records, they would see that birthparent annonymity had nothing to do with it; quite the opposite in fact!...Show more