Does anyone else find Amended Birth Certificates embarrassing?
My amended birth certificate basically says that a woman who has never in her life been pregnant gave birth to me. Never. Ever. Pregnant. Not once. Now I have had a copy of my original birth certificate for awhile now but it is not valid. I can't get a driver's license or a passport with it. I have to use my amended birth certificate for that. The one that says a woman who has never been pregnant gave birth to me. Does anyone else think this is just a little embarrassing for our country. We're suposed to be living in the land of the free and the home of the brave but I have to use a legal lie to be able to drive a car. And everyone is ok with that?
2009-02-14T16:27:09Z
I got no problem with my amom being my mom but she didn't give birth to me. Never gave birth to anyone. And yet her name is on my birth certificate saying she birthed me when she didn't. That's just weird.
2009-02-14T16:30:21Z
I kind of feel sorry for adoptess who don't have a problem with this. Does that mean they enjoy living a lie that is government sanctioned? No thanks.
2009-02-14T16:32:20Z
I actually turned out quite fabulous!!! All of my parents are really proud of me and none of them are bad people.
2009-02-15T08:15:02Z
In Europe, there are no amended birth certificates. There is just an adoption decree. BC's stay the way they are...and no one is rioting over there. The truth can work if we let it.
Carol c2009-02-15T07:53:48Z
Favorite Answer
Yes it is embarrassing and ridiculous. Adoptees were born of another woman, so to amend that certificate to state that the adoptive mother gave birth is misrepresentation. Even with a pedigree dog - when you register the dog the birth certificate is not altered.
What else some of you ask, would you call it?
How about a Certificate of Adoption or Certificate of Legalized Guardianship with both sets of parents listed? At least it would be honest.
I'm still mulling this one over. I haven't thought much about it before, to be honest. My first reaction, is No. Not when the adoptee is still a minor. The records belong to the adoptee, with access by the legal parents (which would be the adoptive parents). I don't think it's any different than any other kind of privacy. I don't think that the natural family should automatically have access to the minor adoptee's medical records, school records, etc. I do think the threat of identity theft is valid, but that's not the most compelling reason. When the adoptee becomes an adult, then he/she can allow whomever he/she wants to have access to those records. If there is a question of coersion, however, I think the natural parents should have a legal route available, in order to access the records. Such as, being able to file a petition in a court of law. ETA: Mamakate, read up on identity theft. You'd be surprised what someone can do with a birth certificate.
I guess I have not thought much about it because along with my birth certificate were my adoption papers. Neither had my bio-parents name on them but I blame that more on a sign of the times. My aparents did not do it to deceive me. It was a legal thing when society thought it was better to hide facts. I don't take it personally. When I applied for my passport I just made sure to include the adoption paper also, that way I didn't have to explain anything. I agree that something should be done to include both birth parents and aparents on a birth certificate. I don't think I'm living a lie because a paper says something, maybe that is because I have always known from my earliest memory that I was adopted, no one tried to hide it.
As a mother through adoption I find them embarassing. I am not sure how they would get around it, but it seems quite silly and frankly a lie to say I gave birth to children I did not give birth too.
What are the other options, this is what I would like to know......
ETA: Freckle Face, I have no problem with some sort of other certificate, but not naming me as the guardian, I am also their mother!! And I am not sure an adoption certificate is correct either, I think children have the right to disclose that information to. We are very open about the fact that children are adopted, but sometimes the children don't want others to know, not that they are ashamed, but people do and say stupid things and ask them what happened to their bio mother, oh how lucky they are to be adopted etc. etc. etc. so I believe my children have the right to not have that as their front and centre to have an adoption certificate different from other people.
Could their not be (and this may contridict my last statement) a line on the birth certificate to ammend that names, but listing us all as parents? It would say they are adopted, but it would be on their birth certificate, it would say born to so and so and raised by so and so or something like that?