Does anyone else find Amended Birth Certificates embarrassing?

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.

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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?

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Isabel-

No one asked us if we wanted to be on our daughters birth certificate after the adoption was finalised.

No one asked us what we thought about it. But the assumption seems to be that we would want it that way. (Why I dunno.) I thought it would list us as adoptive parents or something along those lines. But it doesn't. We do think its deceptive. But we know her biological parents are on the original birth certificate. (and laws are the process of being passed that she will have access to it soon. Its a shame my kids won't until they'ree 18yrs old.)

So it is acknowledged somewhere that they are her biological connection. That she gave birth to her. There is a record of it. So not all is lost.

In the future I hope a way can be found so that a child can have their privacy (and adult) but without the birth certificate being a lie... (It is good to be recognised as our child's legal parents, I won't deny that. but I don't want it be shown as if I gave birth to her. No its not right.)

So America isn't the only country with this out of date system involving birth certificates. It belongs in early last century when people were in denial about adoption having an effect on people and their Identity.

The funny thing is in a debate with other adoptive parents about this who all agreed that it is wrong- the only one who disagreed with us is an adopter herself. I thought she'd be the first to say its wrong.

Kazi- Expect a call any day from Ripley's, I find it a miracle too, you could make a fortune. :)

Some people have it even worse!!! They have their original, with everything blacked out, and then the amended one attached. Try getting a passport with that!!! Its even harder post 911.

They look at you like, huh? then, add on a name change when you get married & it's even more ridiculous.

To DaiseyDuck- having an original birth certificate has NOTHING to do with your "My aparents are my parents, no one will ever tell me any different/ I know who I am and where I came from/ Just because your amom never gave birth doesn't make her any less a parent" line of thinking.

This has NOTHING to do with that. It has everything to do with having a falsified document, that in some cases even looks different than a "normal" birth certificate, and that the falsified document can cause issues to those of us with them.

I had to stand in line at a Mexican airport while men with semi-automatic rifles questioned me regarding my ridiculous amended birth certificate. Id take an adoption certificate any day, rather than deal with that garbage.

I think that is embarrassing that it is ok to falsify a LEGAL DOCUMENT just to sate the desires of AP's (not all AP). I don't see any reason to amend a birth certificate. It gives information about BIRTH, hence the name "birth certificate". A certificate of Adoption should be just fine, there is no reason to lie about who gave birth to you.

I do feel it is embarassing for me (the amom). It says I gave birth to a baby in georgia, and I was living in california at the time, etc. But I wonder about my daughter if she were trying to use her original certificate later, and every time she wanted to do something with it she would have to share the fact that she was adopted with those involved, at least to some extent. Her name would not match the natural mom's last name, or they might say "but I thought your mom's name was so-and-so" if they knew me, etc. Its not that her adoption is a secret, but that I want her to share it when she wants to, not just because she has to file some paper with her birth certificate.

however she's only 3 so my feelings are not very informed. It is interesting for me to read about how this is for you.