The Assembly and Senate have passed a bill enabling adult adoptees born in New Jersey to receive a copy of their original birth certificates. I am not an adopted child, but I understand the importance of family, roots and medical history.
My in-laws have been dead for many years. My mother passed away last year and my father has Alzheimer’s. I have access to medical charts for both parents and can understand how to protect myself from inherited maladies, or at least reduce my risk and my children’s.
New Jersey adoptees do not have that ability and, in the worst scenario, cannot even find blood relatives for organ-matching, if needed. My mother’s passing has increased the importance of birth heritage and family, since I know that memories of five generations will slowly slip away with my dad’s increasing dementia.
Our state’s current position: Denying access to a person’s birth records just because they are adopted. This is a denial of a person’s original identity and denial of preventive care for inherited medical conditions. But ultimately, it is the denial of equal rights under the law, when compared with non-adopted New Jerseyans. It is their right, their need and provides a sense of completion that no other “simple piece of paper” can provide.
Diane H. Spadola, Randolph