Why should adoptive children not be allowed to know who their birth parents are?

The reasons given are usually that it's to protect the child, by preventing them from searching for or meeting abusive parents while under the age of 18, and also to protect them from the knowledge that one of their parents may be a criminal / drug addict / rapist / willingly abandoned them etc.

However, I think it's generally done more to benefit the adoptive parents than the child. I don't think that a child should ever be denied knowledge of where they come from. Everyone has a basic human right to know who their parents are. Even if that knowledge isn't all good, we all have a right to it and I believe that it's always better to have such knowledge and be able to use it to make positive life choices based on your genes. For example, if I didn't know that alcoholism runs in my family, then I wouldn't have made a conscious effort never to turn to alcohol when I'm feeling down. Even 'bad' information plays a part in who you are, and no one has the right to determine what you can and can't know about yourself and your background.

Whether adopted children should be able to meet their natural parents is another issue - obviously if there are child protection issues involved then waiting until the child is 18 and old enough to decide whether to search or not makes sense. But they should still always have the knowledge, even as children. My genetics and family history play a strong role in my identity and without that, I would have grown up feeling lost and not understanding who I was or why I have certain traits.

There is no reason why the child should not know who their bio parents are. If nothing else, they need to know their family history for medical reasons. But, ethically, it is wrong to keep that information away from them for a vast number of reasons. If they are under 18, it's fine to limit contact for the child's safety.

I see no reason at all why adoptees should form a special class who are singled out for denial of their most basic rights.

There may be some extremely rare cases where the birthmother wishes to protect her identity, perhaps out of fear of the man who got her pregnant (as in rape cases). I saw a documentary on TV about a woman who broke off contact with her adoptive child over that issue; the child wanted to establish contact with the violent stranger who raped her mother, but the mother was afraid that the rapist would use that information to track her down and harm her again, so she broke off contact with the child rather than reveal her own or the father's identity. But that's a rare case. Anonymity should be an option for the mother in those rare circumstances where she needs it for her safety, but otherwise, the secrecy in adoption serves no one.

Unless this is a case of severe abuse or neglect & the parents are not safe I see no reason why they shouldn't know their parents at a young age.

Because the adoptive parents want the child to believe that they are the real/gave birth to them parents. Really I don't know. The daughter I gave up in 1972 always knew that she was adopted. She was not given any medical history (actually was given false medical history).

There aren't any reasons why an adoptee shouldn't know who their natural parents are.

There is never, absolutely *no* reason adoptees should not know who their original families are. Sometimes it is not safe for them to have contact when they are under 18, but there is no excuse for not letting them know who their parents are, and if contact is not safe, why it is not (explained in an age appropriate manner).

To deny them this information treats them as perpetual children who are somehow unable to handle the knowledge everyone else on the planet is allowed to have without question.

AdoptED children, not adoptIVE.

Adopted children should know who their parents are, period. There are age-appropriate ways to introduce children to sensitive information, like the parents were abusive or on drugs or whatever. Not giving the child ANY information is just wrong. Those parents are THEIRS, not yours, so it's not appropriate for you to withhold information. Letting dangerous people have access to children is of course, not appropriate. So maybe your question should have been "Why should adopted children not be allowed to meet their biological parents?" Meeting them is one thing. Withholding information about them is another and should never happen.

I don't agree with this. but it is probably because the parents may be bad people. Also they may not be safe to see.

Because he's in prison for being a sexual predator to children? When she's 18, if she wants to see him, she can look him up. My kids can see bio mom whenever they want to. they choose not to.