Does the state think birth certificates belong to the parents?

No, I don't think so, and certainly once the 'child' reaches adulthood. Otherwise non-adopted adults would be denied access to their birth certificates too, right?

Adoptees are denied access to their own personal records that pertain to their historical, genetic and legal identities. Such records are held by their governments in secret and without accountability, due solely to the fact that they were adopted.

States aren't receptive to change for various reasons. They are misinfomed by paid lobby groups representing adoption agencies who have a vested interest in keeping the records secret.

I'd be real interested in seeing what a 'real' New York Birth Certificate looks like. I'm denied access to mine. My mother can't get it either - it's sealed from everyone. The State owns my original identity, it seems.

ETA: I disagree with Sizesmith's definition of the purpose of a birth certificate. The purpose is to record factual information about the person born; hence the title 'Certificate of live BIRTH'. It is not an ID card, and it is certainly not something that ought to be falsified in any way with false information (as 'Amended' birth certificates do)

In the UK (sorry can't speak for anywhere else) The adoptive parents receive a copy of the original birth certificate and then when the adoption is finalised the child receives a new birth certificate with the name of the adoptive parents given as mother and father. It lookes exactly the same as a regular birth certificate and no one could tell the difference - this is how come many people never ever realised they were ever adopted...they had seen their birth certifcates! The only difference is that the original certificate is entered in the births section of the records office, and the second version, although looking identical to a birth certificate, is registered in the adoption register rather than the births one.

The purpose of birth certificates is to provide information to the parents on the child's birth, to make it official so in the minor child's future, they can get things like a driver's license, enroll in school, get a social security card, and get innoculations and maybe a passport.

With the exception of passport, most of these things become such a more "important" and accepted form of identification that the purpose of a birth certificate is kind of mute. I understand adoptees wanting the information which is on the original. In so many cases I've seen, it's a sad fact, but in many of the cases, the adoptive parents hold the information that should make things easier, and they refuse to give that to the child. Technically, in the eyes of the law, the birth certificate belongs to the parents for the first 18 years, and the child has access after age 18 to get a copy. Adoptees only have access to the one like their adoptive parents get, and not their original, and I think things should change.

I think the states think birth certificates belong to the states. They do have a responsibility to take good care of information that can be abused i.e. by identity theft, but in the matter of closed adoption records when the information pertains to the petitioner him or herself, they go too far.