JOINT PUBLIC HEARING

SEALED ADOPTION RECORDS AND THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

April 28, 1976

Hearing Room “A”
Legislative Office Building
Albany, New York

SPONSORS:

THE TEMPORARY STATE COMMISSION THE ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE
ON CHILD WELFARE ON CHILD CARE
SENATOR JOSEPH R. PISANI ASSEMBLYMAN RICHARD N. GOTTFRIED
CHAIRMAN CHAIRMAN

The original microfilm of the typewritten transcript available at the Legislative Library in Albany, New York did not contain the following index. It is unique to this electronic edition of this text.

Prefatory notes by the editor i

Introduction by Senator Pisani and Assemblyman Gottfried 1

Testimony of Carol Possin, President, New York State Citizens’ Coalition for Children 5

Testimony of Mrs. Dorothy Dooley, New York Foundling Hospital 11

Testimony of Mrs. Marilyn Maul, Adoptee 16

Testimony of Ms. Aphrodite Clamar, Psychologist, Adoptee 28

Testimony of Mrs. Doris Bertocci, Clincical Social Worker, Adoptee 40

Testimony of Gertrude Mainzer, Esq. 53

Testimony of Dennis Lynch, Adoption Coordinator, Saint Dominic’s Home 66

Testimony of Ms. Lorraine Dusky, Editor, Free Lance Writer, Natural Mother 74

Testimony of Ms. Betty Jean Lifton, Author, Playright, Adoptee 78

Testimony of Larry Dunsker, Adoptee 89

Testimony of Ms. Vincenette S. Scheppler, MSW, Adoptive Parent 92

Testimony of Ms. Carol Rettig, Adoptee 97

Testimony of David Martin, Adoptee 99

Testimony of Shad Polier, Esq., Counsel to Louise Wise Services 102

Testimony of Ms. Danielle Degolier, Adoptee 126

Testimony of Ms. Naomi J. Roepe, Natural Mother, Adoptee 135

Testimony of Esther Golove, Adoptee 138

Testimony of Ben Bruso, Adoptee 141

Testimony of Ms. Ruth Mitchell, New York Council on Adoptable Children, Adoptee 144

Testimony of Thomas Regan, Albany Home for Children 147

Testimony of Richard F. Mastronarde, Child and Family Services 150

Conclusion by Senator Pisani and Assemblyman Gottfried153

Bibliography 154

Senator Lewis’ Adoptee Rights Bill 155

“Sealed Adoption Records” 156

i.

Prefatory Notes by the Editor of this Electronic Edition

Spelling errors in the original have been corrected, but there may be minor typos in this edition which have yet to be corrected. The pagination corresponds to the original (the original having been double spaced).

In addition to Pisani and Gottfried, hosting the hearing were three members of the Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare: Vincent A. Riccio, Rev. John T. Fagan, and Mrs. Margaret K. Glass. State Senator Albert B. Lewis, Democrat of Brooklyn also was a host, being a sponsor of a then-current adoptee rights bill. This hearing was reported on in Ronald Smothers, Albany Hearings Assess Adopted Persons’ Rights,N.Y. TIMES April 29, 1976, A 43:1-2.

Many thanks to Assemblyman Gottfried’s office for locating a copy of this hearing at the Legislative Library.

Senator Pisani:

I am here as Chairman of the Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare. I am here with my colleague, Assemblyman Gottfried from the Assembly, who is Chairman of the Standing Committee on Child Care.
We are holding a public hearing today on the question of sealed adoption records and the search for identity. It is a subject which I believe is being formally inquired into by the Legislature for the first time, although there have been some proposals introduced in the Legislature - one that I recall, introduced last year by Senator Lewis, who is here now. For the first time, I think, in the history of this State, the Legislature is being called upon to address itself to this very important and very delicate issue of whether or not adoption records, up to this point sealed by order of the court, should be made available to adoptees.
Now, under the existing law, of course, the adoption records are opened by order of the court and only by order of the court. I would say, generally speaking, there is no specific pronouncement in the law that an adoptee is precluded from learning what is in the adoption records. However, by implication, since there are specific provisions prohibiting the disclosure of information in the adoption records, that, implicitly, means that neither the adoptee nor anyone else will be able to obtain this information unless the court has granted an order to open the records.
There is a growing tendency on the part of adoptees, I would say, that has come to the fore more this year than it has ever before to seek these records as a matter of rights. There are 2.
some authorities in the law who have indicated that perhaps there is a constitutional right on the part of every adoptee to look at his adoption records in order to ascertain for himself to his or her satisfaction all information that is available relative to their heritage - their blood heritage.
I must say that the Legislature has not considered any legislation in this area as of this moment in terms of debate. However, there are a number of proposals that I understand are under review and will be submitted to the Legislature for consideration, and we think that it is propitious at this time to give the public an opportunity to express themselves from the standpoint of the three parties involved: From the standpoint of the adopted child; from the standpoint of the adoptive parents; and from the standpoint of the biological parent or parents. And, of course, agencies, voluntary adoption agencies, child care agencies and adoption agencies that have been working in the field for many years - their views would also be of interest to us, particularly in light of the new programs that have been initiated in some of the agencies to try and cope with this problem. It is one of the most sensitive, one of the most delicate problems that I, as a Legislator, has ever had to confront. We are dealing - particularly retrospectively - with the surrender of children that perhaps may have taken place twenty or thirty years ago and has, to all practical purposes, removed from the mind of the natural or biological parent, and the stark reality of a confrontation that was never anticipated resulting - if, perchance, the Legislature allows the opening of records on the part of all adoptees as a matter of right. 3.
I think that we have to proceed cautiously, but we have to come to grips with this problem and find out what the legal parameters are, and what the social and moral parameters are. I am very pleased that Assemblyman Gottfried has joined with us and that we have joined with him in a bi-partisan and dual-house inquiry into this very important issue.

Assemblyman Gottfried:
I am Chairman of the Standing Committee on Child Care of the Assembly. Earlier this year, as we began looking into this issue, we found that the Temporary State Commission was, at the same time, doing a similar study, and today’s joint hearing is an outgrowth of that.
Let me just say at the outset that I think we are all here very sensitive to the competing values and concerns that are at stake here. On one hand, the adopted child, who may have a very strong and legitimate desire to know what his or her background and identity is. On the other hand, I think we all appreciate that there is a legitimate concern on the part of a natural parent who may have placed the child for adoption on what was at that time the legal, valid understanding that he or she was cutting off all contact with that child forever. And, likewise, a similar feeling on the part of the adoptive parents that when they adopted that child they were taking on that child, similarly, forever, and that all contact and knowledge, etc., of the natural parent would be terminated.
And I think that there is some question raised as to whether natural and adoptive parents would participate in those proceedings
4.
if they did not have that feeling of finality. That, certainly, is one of the issues that we will be concerned with today; as well as being interested in knowing the experiences that people have had in this kind of reunion where they have taken place. I think that we would be particularly interested in knowing what the legal experiences have been in New York State, how this has worked in the courts; and, secondly, what the personal situation has been either where that reunion has been accomplished, or where it has not been.
We would also be interested in suggestions - practical suggestions - as to, legislatively, what we might do in this area. Some of the issues are whether any legislation should apply to previous adoptions, or only to subsequent adoptions after the law is enacted; whether there might be some intermediary in the process created by the Legislature, or whatever.
5.
CAROL POSSIN, PRESIDENT, NEW YORK STATE CITIZENS COALITION FOR CHILDREN Mrs. Possin:

I represent the New York State Citizens’ Coalition for Children, a statewide Coalition of adoptive parent groups. We considered the issue of open records at a meeting of our representatives last week. We found mild dissent among adoptive parents about whether adoption records should be open, and we agreed on the following points:
* The issue of open records is of minor importance in comparison with the real problem in adoption, namely that over 16, 000 New York State children in public care should be adopted, projecting from the State Board of Social Welfare’s estimates for New York City children. But this state spends about $300, 000, 000 on foster care and only 1% of that figure on adoption services. The major problems in adoption are the financial and other barriers that keep children out of secure, permanent homes.
* We are not opposed to our children’s contact with biological parents. Many children are adopted at school age, and they have memories of biological parents that cannot be denied.
* Adoption records must not be open to the public.
* Adoption records should not be open to the adoptee until age 18. A young child may be disturbed by problems related therein.
* After age 18 adoption records should be open to the adoptee upon his demand, but these records should not reveal
6.
the identity of the biological mother unless she consents or is dead. True, the adoptee has a right to his identity. However, anonymity is also within the biological mother’s right and in the child’s best interests. Because knowing that agency and court records will be open to the child, the mother might choose the only way to remain anonymous, i. e. abandon her child.
* The adoptee should know more about his biological parents than he knows now. Information should be made available to adoptive parents before placement of the child with them. The state should develop regulations and forms requiring that agencies give adoptive parents for their children all possible information relating to the nationality, physical traits, and medical and social history of the child’s biological parents. Such information forms are currently being tried by Monroe County. For further information, contact Lynda Bailey, Council of Adoptive Parents, 35 Bittersweet Road, Fairport, N. Y.
* The issue of open records is sensitive, requiring more thought and discussion. But, again, it is not a priority issue.
7.
Assemblyman Gottfried:
It strikes me that your primary focus seems to be on the rights of the adults involved, or on biological and adoptive parents. Do you think that an adopted child has a legal right, regardless of the biological parents’ consent, to know who his or her biological parents are?

Mrs. Possin:
I think that there is a right there, but its’ conflicting with somebody else’s right to privacy. I tried to indicate, but perhaps not too clearly in this testimony, it’s more than a question of rights. It’s a question of practical safety for the children. Now, we have no research to prove or disprove this question in our minds. But, what would happen if you were a biological mother and you have a baby that you do not want to keep? You honestly do not want any further contact with that child in later life. You do not want to feel that eighteen years from now that child’s going to walk through your door. What will you do with that child? If any agency involved is going to reveal your identity later on, it seems to me the only route is some kind of a private placement arrangement, or abandoning that child along the roadside.
I don’t mean to be sensational about this and to imply that this is going to happen in a thousand cases, but the life of one child is worthy of consideration in this matter. I didn’t mean to overemphasize the rights of adoptive parents, either, Assemblyman Gottfried; I don’t think I called upon that in any point here. We’ve hardly discussed the rights of adoptive parents. We are concerned about the rights of the children to know as much as they can and need to know about their parents in all these areas of medical,
8.
physical traits, social history of the parents - they should know all that.

Senator Lewis:
Do you have any position in the case of a natural parent who gives up two or three children for adoption - the children are adopted by three different adoptive parents; and the children, adults now, would like to contact, not necessarily their parents, but their brothers and sisters who were given up for adoption? This is a case that I know of at the present time.

Mrs. Possin:
Oh, yes; I have cases like that, too.

Senator Lewis:
Two sisters would like to find a sister and a brother that they grew up with until they were three or four years old and they can’t find them Would you have any objection to that type of record being made available?

Mrs. Possin:
This was not brought up at our meeting, but I can’t imagine that our group would be opposed to that. And my personal opinion is that information should be made available to the adopted child.

Senator Lewis:
I believe that part of the problem that you see and I can understand is a problem would be a child, possibly born out of wedlock, who now, as an adult, wants to go back and find his mother - maybe for a reason that he might have - his hostility - to bring out in his confrontation, or for some other genuine reason; and this mother moved on and she has established herself and whatever she had is now behind her. You can see, and I can very well
9.
see, that that power might be a power that could be abused under certain circumstances. Do you that that [sic] in drawing a bill - if a bill should be drawn and proposed and becomes the law - that we could provide a surrogate or a judge to hear the reason for the child’s desire to find his parent, and also for the judge to bring that parent before him in a closed, “x” party hearing to find out whether or not there are reasons - and good reasons - why the parent should refuse? Do you think that we could put that in a bill and leave it to the discretion of the judge as to what is the best interest of the parent and the child?

Mrs. Possin:
Well, I would have to think about that. But, offhand, I would say that there would be very few reasons in my mind why that child should know who that parent is. It’s simply, in most cases, just the opinion, the decision, the personal feeling of of [sic] the parent involved. What good would it do to force a reunion if the biological parent does not want it? It would not do the child any good. I can think there would be no relationship growing out of it. Wouldn’t it perhaps be a better system where we had some mechanism to determine the consent of the biological parent. And, if that is there, then allow the meeting to take place by itself.

Senator Lewis:
That was the next question. The mechanism of contacting the mother and, in fact, it might very well be the case that fifteen, sixteen, eighteen or twenty-one years later, or whenever the application is made, that the availability of her whereabouts would not be readily available. Supposing that they can’t find
10.
the biological parent, or the court or whoever made the search did not make it as carefully as someone having received the consent, since the biological mother is not able to be contacted, and now finds the biological mother. Do you have any ideas or thoughts on that procedure?

Mrs. Possin:
I recognize that no one is going to search as hard as the adoptee himself. I think we have to all recognize that. We can give that task to a court, to the agency who handled the adoption in the first place, to some kind of listing service that matches biological parents and the children that they gave up, whatever. But I know that nobody is going to search as much as the adoptee and that is a serious problem we have to face. However, that idea of allowing the adoptee to do the searching conflicts with the other idea that we must allow the biological parent to consent.
I think that one thing you can do very simply is, upon surrender to the agency, allow it to be a matter of record that the parent would allow or would be open to having his real identity released to the child upon the age of majority. That would probably cover a large number of the cases already.
Now, the other category, where there is no consent, we have to allow for some way to have the parent change his mind if he wants to. Whether it is the agency doing the contacting or the court. The decision has to be made.

11.
MRS. DOROTHY DOOLEY, NEW YORK FOUNDLING HOSPITAL Mrs. Dooley:
Because of the growing climate and the great need expressed by adult persons who were adopted, for the last year at our agency, which is the New York Foundling Hospital, we have instituted a policy of entertaining any request from a returning adoptee, and ourselves being willing to enter into the search to find the parents, or at times, the siblings. We had just over one hundred such instances this past year. Many of them were not searching to look at the parents, really, but were searching for more information, which we readily gave, never, however, revealing identity, (name or whereabouts).
We, ourselves, have entered upon the search to find the natural mother, to ask her if she would be willing and ready to meet her adopted child. And, if she were, we would be ready to act in whatever liaison capacity either one of them would wish. We were not able to find all; we found maybe about half of those we were seeking. There were some very beautiful reunions, which had a great deal of emotional component, you may be sure. There were some that were sterile; they met and they left. But that’s all they wanted, and life is, after all, like that - not everything according to pattern.
I know that it is a costly thing and it is time-consuming, but we felt that in the interest of humanity that we should do this. We truly understand that there is here being presented, truly, a conflict of interest. Especially, we feel the mother has the right to her privacy, but we also feel that the returning child - the returning adopted person - has rights also, to know, and I do not know the resolution to that conflict. I also know
12.
that there are many complexities to it because in searching for a mother who wishes not to be known:
(1) This was thirty or forty years ago;
(2) She has changed addresses many times;
(3) She is, perhaps, married and has a different name.
In addition, we are dealing with, I will tell you, a very delicate and difficult thing and it must be handled with great delicacy. One does not wish to contact anyone with whom she is presently associated, who might not have know about the existence of this child. And so, it is not a simple matter to do this.

Senator Pisani:
Where do you get your information about the biological mother? Do you get it from your own files, or do you make a petition to the court?

Mrs. Dooley:
We have our own files which are in closed records, but which, at our discretion, may be referred to.

Senator Pisani:
Have you ever engaged in an application to the court to open records?

Mrs. Dooley:
No, never.

Senator Pisani:
This is done pretty much on the basis of an in-house operation, then?

Mrs. Dooley:
Yes. We feel that the mother gave us her confidence and so we go back to her again and say “are you willing to break that confidence, do you wish to reveal this?”
13.
Mrs. Glass:
Are they satisfied to know that their background is such and such, that their father was a carpenter, information like that?

Mrs. Dooley:
Yes. About half who came back were seeking information, not a meeting. However, many who just came for information, when they realized we would be willing to arrange a meeting, then went on to that. I might say in reference to the last speaker - it is the policy of our agency and I know of many other adoption agencies to supply complete - absolutely complete - medical records, as well as such information as at all possible to the adopting parents at the time of adoption.

Mrs. Glass:
Is this in writing - the medical records?

Mrs. Dooley:
Yes, and often the medical records too, but, whatever.

Mrs. Glass:
It’s all in writing?

Mrs. Dooley:
It can be. In fact, we believe it should be, and where it isn’t, I think it should be put into writing.

Father Fagan:
In your experience, were any of those meetings destructive, for either party?

Mrs. Dooley:
No.

Father Fagan:
I know you said some were sterile; some were very cold, I
14.
guess that’s what you meant. Would you say that any of the meetings were destructive, in that it caused damage to them?

Mrs. Dooley:
No, not that I know of. After...we frequently arrange for meetings, and we don’t continue then, always, with them. However, I think that all adoptive parents should be comforted. It has been almost 100% that when we would hear from these persons later that they were very quick to tell us that having met this natural parent whom they had fantasized, perhaps, about for a long time, they really knew that it was their adoptive parents who were their real parents.

Father Fagan:
You would say that usually those meetings were positive - that they were helpful?

Mrs. Dooley:
Oh, yes; I am sure they were. In fact, they ended a life-long search for many of them. We have had persons sixty years old coming back with tears in their eyes thinking that now perhaps there is a possibility of finding out more and possibly meet them.

Assemblyman Gottfried:
You mentioned that these searches were fairly costly. Can you make any kind of rough estimate of what that would be?

Mrs. Dooley:
Well, every case varies, of course. But there was one case recently that I happened to be concerned about myself, and the only address we had for this woman was Oklahoma. But we did know that she had lived with an uncle when she was here in New York, and her uncle had written a book, and what is more, he worked on a newspaper.
15.
This meant going down to the Public Library and looking through all of their archives and finally finding this newspaper that had folded, by the way. But we managed to get to its officers and were able to locate the uncle, who was able to put us in touch with the girl in Oklahoma. So, if it’s that kind of thing, it’s time, and long-distance telephone calls, and all of this. At the same time, trying to preserve everyone’s right to privacy.

16.
MRS. MARILYN MAUL, ADOPTEE Mrs. Maul:

While growing up as a child and being adopted at the age of eleven, I must say that I never felt adopted. I probably never knew what the word meant. Now as an adult thirty-seven years old, I am beginning to feel adopted. I don’t think any fault of my own, only in the eyes of others that don’t believe I have the right to know my biological family and all that goes with it.
I suppose never having lived as an adopted child, one can not identify with the problems which occur in their lives. The need to know of ones origin is difficult to explain to an outsider. I find that the people who have known me all of my life, cannot understand why all of a sudden “I need to know.”
I suppose in my own mind, I didn’t realize how much I actually though about not knowing my biological parents.
During my four pregnancies, the thought was brought to light as I was answering the medical histories of my mother and father. Of course, they needed the medical histories of my husband’s parents too. This annoyed me to the point of almost feeling apologetic for not having the information they were seeking. All I could answer to their inquiries was that I was an adopted child. Therefore, I had never known any history of my parents medical background. They would in turn answer “oh” as if they thought that was a pity.
17.
They never went further into the questioning, simply marked “none” in the blanks provided.
Three of my children had physical difficulties which required hospitalization. Here again, I could not be of any help. For all we knew, their illnesses could have been in the family blood line. I would never know!
In the meantime, these thoughts began to play on my mind. In all their lifetime, they could carry with them a line of uninformed heritages. This really began to upset me to the point that I found it difficult to discuss this with anyone - even my husband. He had come from a biological family and had their histories to follow him through his life. I don’t know, perhaps some of my concern was jealousy, I may never know.
This I do know. Two years ago I began having physical difficulties. My doctor couldn’t actually relate it to any specific origin. I did have surgery. Some people felt my problems, as they were, had to be connected to the surgery. As it was explained, some women go through this after a hysterectomy. Well, I accepted it for a time and did what I could to get myself feeling better. I would have periods of low depression. I could barely keep my head above it. I visited my doctor again. He said this depression was actually a medical problem which could be helped with medication. He also said that I should not let it get the best of me.
18.
Well, it did. The pains in my legs and fingers were real to me. I had dizzy spells I could not understand. I was not sleeping nights, but taking daily naps which lasted up to two hours. I felt that I could not go on like this. Was this all physical or could it be psychological? My faith in God did not reveal all this to me. Again, I asked my doctor what could be done. During his questioning, he did not stop at my life, but continued into the health of my parents. This was the breaking point! I could no longer hide what I’d carried all these years. When he wanted medical history, I told him that I didn’t know nor did I ever know for I was adopted. This didn’t seem to phase him in the least. He just didn’t understand what the reason was that there wasn’t any medical history for them. He suggested that having this on my mid all these years and not actually talking it out, created many of my problems. I didn’t know who, where or what was involved in my life. He said that I should pursue the idea of finding my medical records with the help of my lawyer. He continued me on the medication until we saw what became of the situation. I went home with a flicker of hope. Now the rest was up to me. Could I begin to search for my family and was I able to take the pressures which would be felt from the beginning to the end.
19.
I had seen two T. V. shows on adoption and read several articles in the newspapers. None of these resources stated positive thoughts about ones search. They merely pointed out the difficulties one encounters while searching. I prayed if God wanted me to know what was in my past, He would help me through. He would open and close the necessary doors.
First of all, I had to ask my adoptive father if he would permit me to look into my past. He agreed. I began and his sister helped in as much as she had foster children in her home years ago and had a paper with the letterhead of the agency from which I was adopted. With the knowledge of having known my mother’s first name, maiden name and married name, I contacted my lawyer to see if he would help me. He said he would have to check the laws on the subject and would get back to me. I waited. In the meantime, I got out a baptismal certificate that I have always had. I asked my father if he knew my biological mother as all the information on the certificate would have had to come from her. He knew nothing that would help me.
My lawyer called. He asked me to get an agreement in writing from my dad. Also, a letter was necessary from my doctor stating my present physical condition and psychological state of mind, and his reason for my needing this information. This was all done and forwarded to my lawyer.
20.
It seemed like weeks had gone by before I heard from him again. Waiting for this call created an unusual amount of stress and anxiety. He did call and would now try to get a court order which would open my adoption records for me to check out the medical history I needed to know. Some weeks passed again before the copy of the signed court order came in the mail. Now my lawyer said we should call and make an appointment to go to City Hall and view the records. We did. The following week, we made the appointment to go downtown, meet with the lawyer and view what was in the records - if anything.
This trip made me feel somewhat guilty. I don’t know why either. This was information about me. Why should I not be allowed to see it. Morally and legally I should be allowed to know of my medical history.
We met in City Hall. My lawyer found the girl with the keys to the records room. She and only she could get them out for us. We went down the stairs and entered a room. I noted rows and rows of files and a dingy smell in the room. It sort of scared me. there were two table in this room which we sat at. A gentleman was sitting at one table reading some sort of records. My lawyer gave the girl my file number and she began to look for it with the help of a man, who I though by the way he was dressed was a custodian. Evidently, he was a legal person hired to open the files when needed. He was the one to break the seal. My lawyer paid a dollar for the seal and then was
21.
given a receipt. He was now responsible for those documents.
We sat down and he began to finger the papers. I wanted to hold them myself because they were about me. He continued to hold the papers and made no effort to give them to me for inspection. He said I could take notes If I wished as I would probably never see them again. He began to read aloud. At his point, I wondered why there wasn’t a chamber where we could read aloud all these personal papers, without the ears of complete strangers listening in the same area. After reading the legal jargon that I could not fully understand he got to the parts that were of interest to me. He read the things of my adoptive family as to why they wanted to adopt me and things of my adoptive family as to why they wanted to adopt me and things about their personalities which really didn’t interest me now. Also, he read they previously adopted a son, I had grown up thinking he was their biological son. There was some information as to their hobbies and lifestyle, religion and so forth. This really didn’t matter to me now. I wanted him to come to the information about my biological mother and father. After several sheets of information were read he finally came to me....where I was born and how. I assumed that with my mother’s and father’s last name being the same, I was their child. But, for the first time, I was about to hear it wasn’t that way. In front of my husband, my lawyer, and this other unidentified man. I found that my father was not the man named on my baptismal certificate.
22.
In fact, my mother was not married to my father when she had me. It was an affair that resulted in my birth. After reading this, my lawyer seemed somewhat embarrassed as he too believed I was legitimate. My husband never said a word. The lawyer continued and I found that my mother’s first husband died. She lead a promiscuous life thereafter. My fathers name was listed. It suddenly revealed, why I had always felt I had Italian blood in me. My father was very much Italian. We also found there was a second marriage for my mother. Her reason given for not keeping me was that she wasn’t interested in me as much as her other children. This hurt me tremendously! But I couldn’t let it show there in front of everyone. Basically, through this whole thing I found no medical history. At this time, the file was handed to the man and he stated that “he would take care of it.” Could there be a possibility that other people might happen to have glanced or actually read any of this information without us knowing, before they resealed this envelope? In future instances, what could be done to insure the privacy which an adoptee is entitled to while viewing his or her personal adoption records.
While we were leaving the building I asked my lawyer “where do we go from here.” At this time, he offered a suggestion to me to leave my father’s name out of the search. Go home and start calling people with the same last name as stated on your baptismal certificate.
23.
After careful consideration my husband told me to think of what a phone call to a 70-year-old woman might do to her after all these years. With there being no other alternative, I simply picked up the phone and started calling. I made several phone calls before I came to a person that felt a cousin could help me if I’d call her. In doing so, I found that her mother and mine were sisters. After talking with her, she suggested that she call my mother first and let her know that I would like to be in touch with her specifically for medical and genetic background information. I waited a day and a half and decided to call her again to see why they had not been in touch with me, or to tell me what my mother’s reaction was to my wanting to talk to her. My cousin told me that my mother was stunned and could hardly believe it! She couldn’t figure out how I found her after all these years. I then told her that I would call my mother myself. I made several attempt to get through to her. When she finally answered the phone, I said, “hello, this is Marilyn.” She said “this was a bad time for her to talk, call me later.” I finally reached her very late in the evening. She was very nice to me, and acted as if we had never been separated. We exchanged small talk about the families. I then got to the point and asked her about the medical history I needed for so many years. She was surprised at this question and sorry for the inconvenience of not providing this.
24.
I was then given the basic medical information-that she was diabetic, had heart problems and arthritis of the hands and knees. Nothing more! During the course of the conversation she mentioned that there were brothers and sisters, and step-brothers and step-sisters which I had not known about, nor they about me! She then asked if she could have time to think. I was at this point so thrilled to be speaking to the woman who gave birth to me, that I agreed to give her this needed time to get it all together.
Reviewing this entire experience, I have often wondered if I were 18 years old, unmarried, with no basic responsibility only to myself, could I have psychologically, and emotionally accepted and handled the tremendous impact on my life of finding out that:
1. I was illegitimate
2. I has my father’s legal name
3. To be able to talk to the woman who gave birth to me.
4. To find that I had brothers and sisters
5. To realize that I still had a very sketchy medical history.
Actually, what is the proper age to look into such records? Who can actually handle these things? Do we need the help of a Social Worker? Who is to prove the age of accountability.
What is the answer?
25.
I found out I have a large family - unbelievably. In all, there are about eighteen people; either half brothers and sisters, full brothers and sisters, or step brothers and sisters because of a second marriage. The relationships with my brothers have grown. This is unreal. I grew up in a home with three adopted children, all boys, and I was the only girl. And I never knew those boys as brothers, they all came from different crops. They went their ways, there was a ten, fifteen and twenty year difference in our ages, so we couldn’t identify as a real, blood-related family would identify. Here I was, then, with brothers and sisters that were mine.
I think the next point I would make is that my brother to me has been so beautiful; and as I am meeting them, I have met three in the flesh, one sister in the flesh, two out-of-state on the telephone, and I have started to meet some of their children. In immediate response, they look at me like they are seeing a ghost. Not because I am coming out of the past. But because I had lived with them, and grown up with them in an almost identical sister. I could even, in my heart, feel I might be a twin. It’s a feeling I have had all my life, and I can’t explain it. But at this point they showed me a picture of her, and it was like looking at myself. And it was the most eerie feeling I think that I have ever had in this world.
Ironically, through this whole thing, everything is so secretive, you can’t open the records unless you do it properly, etc. I tried to do everything legally as much as I could. It turned out to be a real good lier, but I’m not lying to you now.
Also, why can’t I have my birth certificate? It’s surrendered
26.
in Albany, locked up, never to be seen by anyone, when I got all of those purely confidential records - highly secretive - and felt guilty doing it. But now I can’t get my birth certificate, that might possibly identify me as a twin sister. And I can’t get that birth certificate. I get a lovely form letter telling me that they have no record of my name. They gave me the surrendered one from my adoptive parents, but I still have not seen my original birth certificate. And until I die I am going to want to see it to see if I have a twin sister, or if there’s any knowledge of it.
At this point in my life, also, of doing this, I was very much alone except for two friends, Betty Jean Lifton and Anna Fisher. I identified with them both, we laughed and we cried; they were my soul and kept me together. And with my faith in those two books, I got through this. After thinking about it, I am very selfish. If there are any other persons in the Buffalo area doing this, I’ve got to get to know the, I called Albany Research Center, and I started a club. It’s called AIM - (Always In Me). There was no way it was going to go out of my mind. I have to help others, if only psychologically, to get through this. And my input of faith might help them. They might never come up with the jackpot I came up with. And I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be a totally happy ending. I know somewhere along the line some of these brothers and sisters in my family are bummers, and we’re going to have to identify with each other and accept whatever’s there because we’re families now. But my reunion has been beautiful. It’s not like I’m seeing strangers. It’s like I’m seeing a part of me and I feel so comfortable, and so good, and so warm, that I know
27.
God has blessed me. And it’s just the most beautiful feeling in the world.
I have a brother flying in from California just to see me, because he has to see me and touch me. He has lived with a guilt feeling surrounding my death for forty-eight years. It just broke my heart for him; at forty-eight, he’s crying and telling me why he can’t believe I’m alive.
I will say that I did not have the breakdown; I think that I have gotten my “cool” now, and I know that through my life God has destined this for me because every person that I have been intimately, quite socially associated with has been involved in some way in the realm of adoption. I can point to every one of my friends and tell you what connection they have had with adoption. Now I can call on these people and their lives and on my life to help these youngsters that are also looking, and who are in the same shoes I’m in.

Senator Pisani:
In terms of your birth certificate, a petition on the part of all the parties concerned should result in a court order. In other words, if you and your biological mother join in a petition I see no reason why a court should not open up that birth certificate.

Mrs. Maul:
If it’s a court order, I can try, but I doubt very much if she’ll let me go that far, for reasons that I can’t say.

28.
MS. APHRODITE CLAMAR, PSYCHOLOGIST, ADOPTEE My testimony to the Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare reflects both my professional and personal experiences with adoption and the issue of the genealogical search.
My training is as a psychologist. Presently I am on the faculty of a well-known New York City medical school, where I am assigned to its affiliation hospital as the director of a psychiatric treatment program for court-related children. In addition, I am in private practice as a psychotherapist. In my practice, I have treated a number of adolescent and adult adoptees who are seeking their “roots” and identities. And, most important, I am myself an adoptee, having been adopted at the age of 18 months by a couple who lived in Massachusetts.
In my opinion, adoption has proved an effective method for providing a home for children who, for one reason or another, must separate from the natural parents. But, even as it provides a home and material care, the adoptive status causes the child a degree of emotional stress not found in children living with their natural parent(s).
The most severe of these stresses is in the area of self-development (ego) and self-identity. Perhaps the most helpful tool in coping with life is our knowledge of ourselves as individuals with the roots of our past and the promise of our future. It is difficult enough to determine who and what you are even if you are raised with your natural family. Imagine what
29.
it is like to live in limbo - not to know your roots, not to know the source for your idiosyncrasies, not to know of the genes you carry, not to know your ethnic, cultural and, sometimes, racial origins. To wit, not to know all the details of your life that the non-adopted would take for granted as its due.
How then do you persuade the adopted child that you value him for who and what he is when you don’t want him to know anything about himself? How do you persuade a child that he is loved when you refuse to acknowledge his past and confirm his heredity? Surely not by hiding his adoption records and pretending his existence began at the moment of adoption. His existence began at the moment of conception - in utero - and, surely, should he so desire, he has a right to know where he comes from.
I have come to this hearing to testify, both in support of and against the bill proposed by the Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare under the Chairmanship of State Senator Joseph R. Pisani. I support that part of the bill which would open up Health Department records, court records and agency records to adopted persons following their eighteenth birthday. At the same time, however, I wish to speak out as strongly as I can against limiting access to adoption records to those whose adoptions take place subsequent to the passage of this law. To deny access to those whose adoption took place before the enactment of this law is to arbitrarily create two classes of citizens. If the law is just and valid, its benefits should be extended not only to new adoptees but to those who have until now been barred from learning about who their forebears are. It is neither logical nor fair to establish, through the provisions of this proposal two classes of adoptees -- those who may know and those who may not.
30.
I respectfully urge the members of this committee to enact the major reform of this proposal giving adoptees the right of access to their sealed records, to all adoptees -- past and future -- in this state.
I am aware of the reasons for the provisions in the proposal under which past adoptees would not be given access to their records. There was always an assumed or implied pledge of confidentiality given both to the adopting parents and to the surrendering parent(s). Even in those cases where the surrendering parent formally agreed not to seek out the child she was giving up for adoption, there was never any written restriction against the right of the child to seek his natural parent. The only restriction was the sealing of the record. I think the members of this committee should be aware of the results of recent studies of adopted children who have sought out their natural parents. In a study entitled “Adoptive Parents and the Sealed Record Controversy,” published in the November 1974 issue of Social Casework1 , Annette Baran, Reuben Pannor, and Arthur D. Sorosky conclude:
“The premise that has governed the philosophy and practice of adoption has been that the relinquishment of the child by his natural parents permanently severs all ties betwen [sic] the child and his natural parents. Although the present standards of anonymity were developed as a safeguard to all of the people involved in adoption....for many reasons these standards have been the cause of insoluble problems. ...Adoption agencies must recognize that the aura of secrecy has been more of a burden than a protection to adoptive parents. For example, adoption agencies have insisted that adoptees be told early and clearly about their adoption, yet little help has been provided to adoptive parents in dealing with the complicated feeling arising out of their adoptee’s dual identity. They have not been educated to understand and to disassociate themselves from their child’s genealogical concerns and curiosity. Open access to information and the enabling of the adoptee to consider contact with his natural parents at maturity would create a more wholesome environment for parents and child.”
31.
The same authors, writing on “The Psychological Effects of the Sealed Record on Adoptive Parents,” published in The World Journal of Psychosynthesis, November-December, 1975, deal directly with the question before us at this hearing.

“As we studied dozens of reunions, one paramount thread ran through the fabric of these human dramas. Regardless of what kind of relationship, positive or negative, that had existed between the adoptee and adoptive parents prior to the reunion, the effect of the reunion was to enhance that relationship.

“Even when the reunion resulted in an on-going relationship between the adoptee and birth parents the feelings of the adoptees toward their adoptive parents was more concretely positive and assumed a new meaning. What emerged was the realization that the adoptive parents are the only true psychological parents and that the lifelong relationship with them is of far greater importance than the new connection with the birth parents.

“As a result of the reunion, in a significant number of the cases, a better and closer relationship developed between the adoptee and the adoptive parents.”

I should like also to call to the Committee’s attention the statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adoptions and Identity Development of Adopted Children (published in Pediatrics, May 1971). That statement declared in part:

“There is ample evidence that the adopted child retains the need for seeking his ancestry for a long time. Adopted children frequently make a request to their parents or pediatrician for more information on their origin. When invited to the adoption agency for additional information, the individual may fail to go and may reveal his confusion and inconsistency by making the same request at a later date. What he is actually seeking is to achieve a unity and persistence of personality in spite of the break in the continuity of his life. The struggle with this problem may reach its peak in adolescence and, in the extreme, result in running away in search of real parents.

“The need for knowledge of ancestry may go unrecognized, or it may be suppressed by both the parents and the child. Parents should discuss with the child aspects of his background. An honest and straightforward exchange will do much to reduce the anxiety inherent in this area of identity formation, and such an exchange should be encouraged and assisted by the pediatrician.”
32.
The burden of these studies is to underscore that: (a) adoptive children need to find their roots; (b) open access to information by which the adoptee can find his genealogical roots is better for the adoptee as well as for the adopting parents.
Whatever benefits were thought to derive from the sealing of adoption records are far out-weighed by the psychological damage done to adoptees forbidden from finding out who they are and where they came from.
For these reasons I respectfully urge the committee to recommend the enactment of legislation that would give [^adult] adoptees, henceforth and retroactively, access to their records.

Senator Pisani:
For the record, Ms. Clamar, there is no specific bill that has been approved or recommended by the Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare. We have this entire subject matter under discussion and study. The bill that has been introduced is the bill that was introduced by Senator Lewis, who is on the dais here today as a member of the Senate. So, just for purposes of the record, if there is any bill that we are talking about it is Senator Lewis’ bill.

Ms. Clamar:
I read a copy of the report that was submitted.

Senator Pisani:
Yes, that was a staff report to me and to the Commission, but it has not been adopted by the Commission as of this date.
33.
We still have that subject matter under study, and one of the reasons for holding this hearing is to apprise the Commission members of the attitude of the public, and those that are concerned with the subject, so that we will be better able to formulate an opinion on the Commission. You were taking some of the things in the Commission’s report as to the Commission’s attitude, and that’s merely a staff report to the Commission.

Senator Lewis:
My bill would just show two approaches, one prior adoptive rights, as compared to the rights subsequent to the adoption.

Ms. Clamar:
That was only in the recommendation? Okay.

Mrs. Glass:
In the early part of your statement you said that the adoptive child has a tremendous need for this. More so than children living with their natural parents. In your experience, have you come across children who have grown up in foster homes who had similar needs as the adoptive child? Or does the foster child seem to handle it differently?

Ms. Clamar:
Well, mainly it would depend on the experiences of the foster child. The adopted child comes into adoption...(tape inaudible)...If it would help them to track down their parents, certainly they should have whatever health information is available, or whatever other information is available. But that information and those histories vary from agency to agency, some of which are very complete and some of which are inconsequential.

Mrs. Glass:
Would it be helpful, do you think, to give the person seeking
34.
the information a statement based on the record without actually turning over the record.

Ms. Clamar:
That depends on what you would have in that written statement. Would you have the mother’s name and their name at birth?

Mrs. Glass:
Well, someone would have to determine what we are going to give these people. But, say that it is all this information. I can see that it might not help a child to know that a caseworker writes into a record his thinking about a person. You know, he’s trying to make a decision and he does sometimes put it into the record that, “he strikes me as being this or that,” etc. Or, “I talked about this and that with my supervisor.” Would this really help a person? To know that their parents were the subject of such discussions and things like that. I’m wondering about the feasibility of turning a child welfare record over to a child. Because it’s not a record just about a child - it’s a tool of the agency.

Senator Pisani:
Can I just add to that? Let’s assume there’s information in the record about the mother’s past. Let’s say she was a prostitute. Let’s say she was a drug addict. Let’s say she was engaged in all kinds of activities which, perhaps, is part of her past, and she’s gotten it behind her and is totally recovered from it., Should this be disclosed to the adoptee?

Ms. Clamar:
If she were a drug addict, yes. Because if the child was born at the time she was addicted, then you’ve got medical information there. I would be in favor of turning over all identifying

35.

material which would enable the child to find the mother, to know his name, to know his ethnic background. To know as much medical information as is possible.

Senator Pisani:
Psychological reports also?

Ms. Clamar:
Psychological reports as well?

Senator Pisani:
Criminal records?

Ms. Clamar:
Of the mother?

Senator Pisani:
Of the mother.

Ms. Clamar:
Yes. But remember we are talking about adults, we’re not talking about children.

Senator Pisani:
Well, we’re talking about adults.

Mr. Riccio:
You talked about psychology. What are some of the manifestations of people that are in you work that you find that are overt? Could you describe some of them? Such as lack of identity.

Ms. Clamar:
Many children feel that they don’t belong. You find children who sit in classrooms, and they stare into space, and they are constantly fighting with their parents, and they are withdrawn from their world. They have feelings of being not only insecure but unworthy. Of questioning where did they come from, “what was so terrible about me?” That’s why I say that if you are going to

36.

open the records, nothing can be so terrible on those records than what the child has imagined.

Mr. Riccio:
I’m sure I know what you were going to say. But the reason why I asked this question is that unless somebody can interpret - can get the record and tries to interpret it for himself - would there be greater psychological damage - if, for instance, a psychologist such as yourself weren’t involved. With just a layman involved, trying to interpret those records for himself - would there be bigger psychological damage? Due to the inability to handle this information?

Ms. Clamar:
Are you saying, then, there should be someone who can help the person and counsel them as they go through this material?

Mr. Riccio:
I almost have a feeling that in trying to interpret some of this material, that later on there might be even more damage, and there might have to be a more intensive type of therapy.

Ms. Clamar:
I think you mean should there be someone there to help them, to counsel the person, and help them to integrate what they find on those papers.

Mr. Riccio:
Well, then it gets rather unwieldy and a rather expensive type of thing, to have someone that must be an interpreter of what is going on in the record.

Ms. Clamar:
But I think that if you are not going to go into the expense of setting something like this up, and it isn’t really that expensive

37.

if you really have to have professionally trained people who have worked with adoptees and who understand what is going on, then I think that you will have to depend on the ability of the person [to] integrate and synthesize. Remember, psychologically, we only absorb that which we can absorb. There’s an awful lot that we don’t absorb. If we can’t take it in, it’s lost, it gets not seen by us. And I think we have to rely on the person being able to integrate as much as he can.

Father Fagan:
How would you answer the conflict of interest issue on the right of the parents to privacy?

Ms. Clamar:
Could you explain that?

Father Fagan:
I’m saying, if a parent does not want to see the child, and does not want to visit with the child, does not want to be known,

Senator Pisani:
Explicitly. Assume that is the case.

Ms. Clamar:
I’m sure there are natural parents who do not want to see their children.

Senator Pisani:
How do you handle it? Should there be a right of the child to know and to seek out anyway?

Ms. Clamar:
Well, I suppose that what you can do...there are two possibilities there. You can arrange at the time of the adoption to have the parent indicate that they do not want this information

38.

given out. Now, people’s minds do change, and experiences change, and what was a scandal thirty years ago is quite acceptable at this point, or does not have the proportions of a scandal. So that I feel there would have to be some effort made to find such a parent who has designated, “I do not want to be known,” to ask them, to approach them.

Senator Pisani:
But the impression that I got from your statement where you say, in conclusion, that the Commission should recommend enactment of legislation that would give adult adoptees, henceforth and retroactively, access to their records, was that you had at least qualified to the extent of the consent on the part of the natural, biological parent.

Ms. Clamar:
Not consent across the board, but only consent if the parent, at the time of the adoption, was so adamant about not having their identity known.

Senator Pisani:
Well, but we’re talking now about a situation where thousands upon thousands of adoptions have already taken place.

Ms. Clamar:
Right.

Senator Pisani:
Now, it is rather easy to legislate prospectively. Whether you’re right or wrong, at least it’s a lot easier to talk about something that hasn’t happened. But, now, we’re talking about thousands of cases. There are many thousands of children - adults who are adopted children. And that question, that consideration, was never part of the adoption process.

39.

Ms. Clamar:
Then, now that I hear your question more clearly, I would stick to what I have said here. No. I would open those records.

Senator Pisani:
In other words, you say there is no right of privacy for the natural parent as far as you’re concerned.

Ms. Clamar:
In terms of the studies that have been done, the results have been positive enough in enough cases that I think that it would be best to have them opened for everyone. If the parent really and truly does not want to be known, and certainly one would have to have discretion to approach a parent; you don’t just go up and say, “Here I am.” You do have to be discreet about how you do these things, and I would expect that people would have enough judgment that they can handle that kind of thing. If the parent is strongly against you and doesn’t want any part of you to exist...

Senator Pisani:
One of the problems is this: When you’re talking about a right, then that right is available to those that have the right and there is nothing built into the law that says, “You have the right but you must be discreet.” You either have a right or you don’t have a right. If you have a qualified right, then that’s something else. Then it’s not really a right.

Ms. Clamar:
No, I would give the right.

40. MRS. DORIS BERTOCCI, CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER, ADOPTEE Mrs. Bertocci:

I speak to you as a clinical social worker who is an adoptee. You may find the following personal background helpful in weighing my testimony: I was adopted at the age of nine months through one of New York City’s major placement agencies. I love and honor my parents and I am a happy wife and mother. But despite my good fortune and essentially successful adjustment to the problems of living, I share with countless other adoptees a burning need to know my roots. I am here to help you understand that this need is healthy, intensely human and worthy of the most solicitous treatment under the law.
The adoptee’s search for information about himself should never be taken as a casual inquiry motivated by idle curiosity or as the vengeful act of a chronic malcontent. It is a vital undertaking which has the earmarks of a fight for life. It is a fight for the emotional part of a life which remains confused, poorly integrated and, in many instances, compromised and even arrested.

41.

No matter how sympathetically you listen, if you are not yourself an adoptee you will have difficulty understanding the proportions of the void in the adoptee’s emotional constellation because you know as much as you want to know about your roots. This knowledge is so essential to your personality and so taken for granted that you cannot really conceive of its importance to you just as you cannot really conceive of what it would be like to be alive but not to have a skeleton. The adoptee is looking for his skeleton and really does not care so much about the details of what he finds so long as he can experience its reality and structure. Adoptees are sometimes bitterly disappointed by what they find but they do not regret the search. The details are not as important as the truth; it is not what they know but that they know.
For two years prior to my present position, I was employed as a caseworker for a small private agency which provided counseling services to unmarried mothers. The adoption agencies agreed with my agency’s policy of encouraging the young women to see and even hold the babies they planned to surrender. This practice was based on psychiatric evidence that a woman cannot successfully mourn the loss of her baby unless she has a real “object” upon which to focus her feelings. In brief, reality was healthier than fantasy. Ironically these same adoption agencies do not use the same reasoning when that baby grows up and required reality (information about his natural background) rather than the frustrating fantasy which necessarily takes its place.

42.

We do not know why some adopted persons express no need to search for information about their natural background while others express a very great need to learn about their origins. As a member of the latter group I am attempting in the only way I know how to impress on you the fact that there for us there is no peace from our conflict; we are incapable of putting this behind us without real, solid information on which to focus our feelings. In considering the issues I am bringing to your attention, I would recommend, as an absolute “must,” your reading the article by Arthur Sorosky, Annette Baran, and Reuben Pannor entitled “Identity Conflicts in Adoptees.”2
Adoption workers have in many instances been hostile to the adoptee’s need to know and they sometimes wrap themselves in the legal ambiguities which allow them to justify their resistances as being legally mandated.
When an agency is willing to share information, as in the case of the agency which placed me, it is typically done with obvious reluctance and dubiousness as to the value such information would have for the adoptee. The social worker I saw was warm and “professional” in her behavior; but she was also evasive in response to a number of my questions, denied knowledge of or made uncertain references to facts which I already had in my possession, and seemed uncomfortable with my

43.

inquiries, stiffening and asking at one point “What do you want to know that for?” The fear may be that specific information, which is trivial or irrelevant to the social worker, will be blown out of proportion in its importance to the adoptee. But specific information has an enormously relieving effect; it does not intensify an obsession. In many instances, this resistance and obfuscation by the agency may be a response to a fear of legal liability for divulging information. But in other instances I think it reflects the agency’s resentment of the adoptee’s implicit challenge to the presumption upon which their adoption work was based -- that the adoptee’s identity necessarily becomes totally rooted in his adopted family. I resent the assumption that my personality is so limited in depth and breadth that I am incapable of a firm attachment to my adoptive family and, at the same time, of a meaningful involvement in some form or another with my biological origins.
When I was an infant, the entire resources of the agency were focused solely upon my welfare. The only question that was asked was “What is best for this child.” Oddly enough, when I grew up and turned to them for help, the agency switched its ground (without, as nearly as I can tell, questioning its ethical obligations and conflicts of interest) and asked only “What is best for the natural parents”. Adoption agencies apparently hold that they cannot reveal identifying information

44.

because of their promise of confidentiality to the natural mother. As far as I know it is entirely a matter of interpretation as to whether such confidentiality extends to the child, as the adoption agencies claim. I doubt very much that most natural mothers receiving the promise of confidentiality thought at the time that their child would be included in the mass of individuals from whom she wanted her situation kept secret. But I can tell you that in my work with unmarried mothers each of whom received regular, intensive counseling, the notion of secrecy from the child was never touched upon.
However, even if one agrees that after twenty or more years the natural parents’ best interests are to be paramount, one has to ask whether the agency’s unhesitating preservation of anonymity as a bar between natural parent and child is in the parent’s best interest. The agencies presume that after a period of readjustment and mourning, the natural mother puts the experience behind her, and thoughts of the surrendered child cease to preoccupy her even on a conscious level. And so, we are supposed to believe, most natural mothers proceed through the rest of their lives with a minimum of conflict about this sad episode in their past. What is missing in this presumption is any understanding of the elaborate defenses which the personality utilizes in order to come to terms with the loss of the child. This is not to say that there are not women who may experience a

45.

minimum of conflict during or after the surrender of a baby; my guess, based in part on my experience with unmarried mothers, is that many such women may be seriously handicapped emotionally in their capacity for sustained relationships with any human beings. Other women may make their peace but [pay] a certain price in terms of the quality of their relationships with other people. But the main point is that we do not really know how most natural mothers dealt with in their subsequent development with the surrender of a child.
In any event let us suppose hypothetically -- and it has to be hypothetical since there is no solid evidence -- that most natural mothers do manage to forget, do cease to wonder about the welfare of the child they surrendered, do experience virtually no on-going conflict. Even if that is true, the child she surrendered -- if that child is one of the thousands for whom we are seeking free access to the other part of their identity -- the child bears the conflict every day of his life. Further, should that child succeed in finding the woman who bore him, is it so unrealistic to expect that if the woman has indeed made her peace with the surrender of her child, she could not continue to utilize the same defenses (detachment, indifference or whatever) which she had heretofore used? What I am really asking is, what evidence is there that the natural mother who is found, and who does not wish to be found, thenceforth suffers in some significant and permanent way?

46.

My recommendations are that the law be clarified to allow the only people who now matter in this context, the natural parents and the child, to overcome the barriers which were rightly erected to protect them from the idle curiosity of third parties. Specifically, after a child is eighteen years old, either the child or its natural parents should have access to adoption court and agency files. If some protection against abuse of the files is deemed necessary, the courts should be empowered to investigate the proper intentions of either party requesting access to the files.
Adoptees searching for their roots are not ingrates and they are not “sick” or maladjusted.” More usually the determination to search is an indication of health, courage and a capacity for deeply caring.
I also feel, along with an agency in California, that adoption agencies should be encouraged to try to keep their files updated if they can. That is, they should encourage natural parents to provide as much information (background) as they can, and they should also encourage adoptive parents and families to be in touch with them occasionally so that they can leave information on the welfare of the child.
I have, really, a question I wanted to ask, which is: If Legislation were to be changed so that adoptive people would have access to their files - supposing a natural parent was getting the opportunity to make a statement to an adoption agency that they would not wish to be found - could that be possible?

Senator Pisani:
Prospectively - yes.

47.

Ms. Bertocci:
But I mean retrospectively.

Senator Pisani:
Retrospectively, it would be difficult. I can’t see how realistically we can accomplish that.

Mr. Bertocci:
One thought I had when you were asking Ms. Clamar some questions is that should a natural parent be contacted and told, “Your child wishes to know who you are, and even wishes a reunion with you; would you want it?” And if they say no, I would still say that they should have the opportunity to discuss their feelings with a professional person. Perhaps, of course, those natural parents are afraid that all of a sudden they are going to be legally liable or responsible for this child, and they should know very clearly that they are not. But, whatever their fears are, I think that the natural parent should be given a chance to express them to a professional person.

Senator Pisani:
Well, I think that’s pretty much the part of the Foundling Hospital framework that’s going on now, where they take all kinds of cautions to be fully advised of all the parties, all the ramifications, legal, social, psychological and otherwise. And that is one of the approaches that has been recommended to us. That it be done by using, if possible legislatively, the model that the Foundling Hospital is engaged in. Let me put it this way: if a law can be passed on the subject, I am sure that provisions like that can be included in it. But it’s not going to be a very easy task.

48.

Not a very easy task to prepare legislation along those lines, as you can well imagine, because we are dealing with a lot of subjectivity.

Ms. Bertocci:
If, for example, my natural mother were located and she expressed a clear desire not to have a reunion, I would at least hope she would have a chance to talk with a professional person about it. I’d like to know what her feelings and what her fears are.

Senator Pisani:
As you indicated before, you do appreciate the very delicate psychological problems that are involved, for all parties.

Ms. Bertocci:
I certainly do, yes.

Ms. Glass:
Do you think that the identity problem would be eased for most adoptees if they were given more information, if their adoptive parents were given more information?

Ms. Bertocci:
Yes, absolutely.

Mrs. Glass:
Do you think that would solve part of the problem?

Ms. Bertocci:
Yes.

Ms. Glass:
Then, are you saying that in some cases it’s not absolutely necessary to know the actual identity?

Ms. Bertocci:
I would leave that up to the adopted person. You know, many

49.

adopted people do not ask for identifying information. Many just want medical information; some want ethnic background; religion, a general description of their natural parents personality, and such. Others want to go further and have identifying information, and others want to go beyond that and actually have a reunion.
I think it’s absolutely crucial, and I speak for myself personally again, that it has meant a great deal to me to know as much as I know about my natural background. And I have been able to obtain a certain amount of identifying information merely because I’m clever, and not because I got a lot of cooperation on the part of officials. But that’s important to me. And one of the things I want to emphasize is that is that it’s very relieving to me. It’s not that it kicks off a whole string of obsessions, because if you want to call it a preoccupation, I would say, it was there to begin with. Whatever I can learn relieves me and helps me feel I am settling myself down.

Mrs. Glass:
Can you give us some suggestions as to what information should be given?

Ms. Bertocci:
A lot of information.

Mrs. Glass:
Racial?

Ms. Bertocci:
Absolutely, you must. Ethnic background, religion, physical description of the natural parents, a description of their personalities, the nature of their relationship. Something that was very important to me was whether or not my natural father even knew

50.

that I existed - I wanted very much to know this. What the relationship was. Whether the natural father participated in the planning for the child. There ma be other things, but I think those are critical.

Mrs. Glass:
What would you think about the information that surrounds the actual surrender? What the people who were deciding the surrender said about their thinking and why they were doing it. Do you think that would be helpful to you?

Ms. Bertocci:
That’s a hard question for me to answer because I know what the caseworkers thought of my natural mother. And it was all very reassuring. You’re saying, if some of the information is not complimentary?

Mrs. Glass:
No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying that, in connection with the person or persons who signed the surrender - what their thinking was at the time - the natural parent.

Ms. Bertocci:
Yes, I think that would be...you know, some adopted people may not find that important. I would, personally, find that important. I guess, in general, what I am saying is, I would leave it to the adopted person to know, or to be able to express, what is important to him to know. Some people don’t like to know very much, and some people want to know a lot.

Mr. Riccio:
I notice that you have a clinical background also. Is this an awareness on your part because of your clinical and your psychological depth - or would someone who is a layman have the same feelings?

51.

Can they handle the stress and what may be before them in terms of getting the files, etc., the same as you? Do they have the ability to handle these files? You have a clinical background.

Ms. Bertocci:
That doesn’t mean that I am well-glued, although I am. Having a clinical background does not mean that I have a superior capacity for integrating all of this. There are people without clinical backgrounds who can integrate it and deal with it quite well. I really don’t think my clinical training is as important as just...

Mr. Riccio:
But it gives you a different awareness on how to handle this situation.

Ms. Bertocci:
It helps; it helps.

Mr. Riccio:
But I’m thinking of someone else that doesn’t have the awareness that you have. Without the ability to get the kind of thing you need, will this be dangerous?

Ms. Bertocci:
I don’t see it as dangerous. I think the most dangerous thing is ignorance. I think the destructive thing is not to know.

Mr. Riccio:
Well, that’s a nice cliche, but there are other people where if something comes to them it is very damaging because they don’t have the ability to handle it.

Ms. Bertocci:
I have not yet met such a person and, frankly, I’d like to speak with them. It takes time to integrate some of this, but as

52.

I said, even for those who were disappointed in some of the things they found out, the fact that they could finally stop walking the streets, and no longer look at a woman and wonder if it was their mother, just to be able to relax and feel settled about it, is the most enormous benefit for them.

53. GERTRUDE MAINZER, ESQ. Mrs. Mainzer:
My testimony will be limited to one experience. I am an attorney in New York City and I think I am the first one who brought cases in New York City before the courts re access to adoption records. And I feel it might be of interest to the Commission to know how these cases have been handled, or what the experience was, and what the result was. Because it is interesting to find that only one of the cases which I have handled has been reported. This is a case that has been mentioned in your report and recorded in the Law Journal. The other cases in New York County and Staten Island, all of which have been cited in favor of full access to the records, have not been reported. I explain it by the reluctance by the judges to admit what they have done because my judge told me that his court was against his allowing access.
Why do I think these cases are important?
(1) It is important to realize what the arguments are which brought the court to the decision to open the records
(2) It is important to bring expert testimony before the court which is relevant
(3) It is very important to see the results afterwards: (a) the results of the cases; (b) the results for the people who have obtained their full records.
In this whole discussion here today, I think it is extremely important to differentiate between two issues. We are here concerned with the possibility of changing the statute which might or might not apply to access to the records, and not with the issue

54.

of searching for names. We are concerned with access to the records of adult adoptees - nothing else. The reunion and search for parents which we have heard from all adoptees - those searches have taken place without going to court. My argument for opening the records is that whoever really searches - finds. Therefore, these adoptees use illegal means, tricks and all, to obtain what they want although it’s disrespectful of the law and therefore I feel the authorization should be given to make the records available. Because these searches are already morally wrong. So, even though the record would give them the identifying information, a search under the law is still a very difficult proceeding.
In addition, in all three cases which I have handled, none of the adoptees who have found their records and everything have started to search for their parents. My first case was in 1972, the next, in 1973, and the last one in 1974.
The fourth case which I had prepared a year and a half was ready to go to court in the Bronx when the adoptee called me one day before the hearing, after I had prepared all my petitions, all my constitutional arguments, the hearings had been set, everything for the case had been prepared, and told me she was not ready to face the trauma of the court proceeding. In addition, as you may remember, the statute requires notice to the adoptive parents. Now this person had an extremely good relationship with her adoptive parents, but she knew they would feel hurt if they found out that she was going into this proceeding. So, I argued with the court that they should dispense with the notice to the adoptive parents requirement, but they did not consider that sufficient argument. But the requirement itself is unconstitutional. Because

55.

every adult can buy a house, can have ten illegitimate children, can give up children for adoption, can marry, can do anything, without notice to adoptive parents. Now, why should an adopted person have to give notice of a proceeding in a court to his adoptive parents? But, anyway, this trauma to the adoptee of having the court deny my request to dispense with the giving of notice destroyed the petition, which is an additional argument hat I think can be made.
I think it is not sufficient that I obtain in every court where I go the record; it has to be regulated by the statute that the adoptee can go to the court, get a birth certificate and everything, without a court proceeding as a matter of right, by giving proof of being an adoptee and an adult, having reached majority. This is the only reason why I feel the court proceedings are not sufficient. They don’t do away with the terrible trauma of having to go to court, besides being a long-drawn out proceeding.
None of us really feel that the statute, as it stands, really applies to the adoptee at all, the adult adoptee. If it is applied to the adoptee, my position is that it probably is only conceived to the time when a child is a minor. Therefore, I feel that it does not apply to adult people at all. But, if it applies, then you have to show the court why you want access to the records. You have to show good cause before a court why you want the information.
Now, my interpretation is that this does not mean you have to show specific good cause, but my position is that every adult adoptee, per se, has shown good cause, because, in general, for various reasons, the adult adoptee needs this knowledge. At least

56.

the ones who ask really want to know. Why? For many reasons.
As the law is processed, it is a crime to marry a natural brother or sister or father or mother or, in some states, a cousin. You might say that is a very remote possibility. But that’s not so. One of my cases was where an adoptee had been engaged to another person who was adopted. She had decided to take the risk, although she did not like it. They decided to go on a trip and she applied for a passport. She was then thirty-five years old. For the passport she needed her birth certificate, and for the first time, when she was thirty-five years old, she got her birth certificate. Up until 1950, you might know, there was a long form for an adoptive birth certificate, which was much more complex. On top of it it said: “Alteration approved by the Board of health,” with the date. And under the words, “Certificate of Birth,” it said “By Adoption.” Since 1950, it is always out; now it says only, “Certificate of Birth.” Therefore, she found out she was adopted, that they were, then, both adopted, and she broke her engagement and did not get married.
Also, there was another case in 1970, where a woman was in prison for being married to her son, a boy she had given up nineteen years before as a baby. It was a case of incest, under the law, even though the woman did not have that advice when he became her husband. So, as long as the coincidence exists, I think every adult adoptee has good cause for knowing whatever they should.
Also, there are medical reasons. How important are they? It is important, for example, that you know your father had hemophilia. For if you become pregnant, you must have the test to determine if the child is a girl or a boy. Because if your father had hemophilia, you have a 50-50 chance that your boy will be a

57.

hemophiliac. Therefore, you have a chance to decide whether you want to go through with it or have a medical abortion. If it’s a girl, you don’t have to worry. All of these things are important, because some of the symptoms don’t appear until you are twenty or thirty years old, and there are many medical reasons to consider. Also, if you have some black blood, you may have a tendency for sickle-cell anemia, and, therefore, it is important to know all you can of your background. And you must understand, that there are other illnesses which are just as important and just as hard to detect unless you know you medical background.
All of this is important, not just for adoptees themselves, but in general. Genetically, this is important. In the first case which I had in New York County, this was exactly an issue. I represented a woman from North Carolina who had a child which suddenly developed certain physical, medical symptoms. The physician recommended that she should try to obtain the medical background of the family. I went to court. The surrogate opened the record, but he said, “Mrs. Mainzer, I opened the record because you have a medical good cause showing that this woman should have the record. I will give you this record; read it; there is not a single word of medicine in this record.” So, he saw that, even though there was nothing medical in the record, he felt she was entitled because she has a problem. Now, I was suspicious. I feel if there is absolutely nothing in the record, something is hidden. I convinced the judge that I might be right. And, since this was an emergency matter, he agreed to subpoena the agency records, in that case.
We had a second hearing, with the agency, and the judge

58.

found that: (1) the woman had not been an only child; (2) she had two retarded sisters; (3) her mother had been in institutions practically all her life, besides being a chronic alcoholic which has great consequences for children also. It was this horrible record - the judge gave me access to complete agency records, which is important in connection with your question - which was about 200 pages of the most horrible record for a person to read - that this woman had to read. I was shocked myself. I asked the woman if she really wanted the records. She said not knowing was worse because she had been suspicious, she had a sick child and if she had known what was in these records she would not have had children.
Therefore, I say, this case was opened on account of a woman who had a sick child, but it shows that it’s just as important for someone who is well and not sick, because she might find the same background. Therefore, I say that generally we are entitled, not only when we are sick.
The interesting thing is, after this woman had received her records, she wrote the most moving letter to the judge and to me, and the judge showed me the letter because he was proud of what he had received; she said that for the first time in her life she felt free. She met a man, she gave him her records,, and she said, “Look, that’s me.” She could marry him; she invited him to the wedding. And she wrote to the judge, “You were reluctant to let me know what was in my records, but you have given me the freedom to know who I am, and know in my second marriage I certainly will not have any children.
Now, this is the argument, whether medical or not, I think, for every adult adoptee, to have access to their complete record.

59.

The third reason that I feel every adult adoptee is entitled to his record, is that without knowing that background, the person is cut off from continuity. A person is not just a human being in the present, in his family, in his surroundings, but needs the feeling of continuity, knowing that he has a link with the past, and also that it will be a link with the future generations that come after it.
Someone said, “We all have the feeling of a symbolic immortality, and all want not just to know, ‘when you’re dead, you’re dead.’” In a sense, we have immortality for those following after us, but we also want to feel that we are a continuation in the lives that have gone before.
It might be interesting to you, if you are familiar with the work of Erik Erikson, who is really the founder of the personal identity issues, and I don’t think he could have come to his conclusions if he hadn’t been adopted. I found out that Erik Erikson was adopted, and now that he is over seventy years old, he has admitted that his concern for being adopted brought him to acceptance of the importance of personal identity. He knew only that his father’s name was Erik, and he calls himself Erikson, the son of Erik. Therefore, he combined, in that name, this continuity in the present and the past. He was identifying with his Danish background.
Another argument is that in the event the courts would not agree that every adult adoptee has shown good cause for the preceding reasons, I feel very strongly that the statute would be unconstitutional for various reasons. And I was amazed that in your report that you do not enter into the constitutional argument at all, that all the report says is you don’t feel the constitutional

60.

argument rises to compel an consideration. I feel this is certainly not true. I feel, also, that everyone should be able to obtain their birth certificate from the Board of Health. If it’s a certificate of adoption, then what they are certifying to is not the truth, because it is not a certificate of birth, and they can sue the government. But this treatment that you, as an adoptee, cannot get your birth certificate unless you ask the court to subpoena the records of the agency, is certainly a violation of the equal protection clause because it’s based on status, like sex, race, religion, national origins. And to base differentiations on status which you cannot help, you cannot help that you are adopted, you have not been a party to agreeing this is the basis either, and therefore your rights cannot be taken well without even considering them. You are treated as if you were nobody.
After you reach majority, there is no reason, whatsoever, to justify the treatment of adult adoptees, or to take away any rights under the due process clause and the protection clause. In addition, the statute, under the access to the records provision, requires you to go to the court where the adoption took place. Because of all the secrecy, many of these adoptees don’t know where the court is; they don’t know where they were adopted. And, therefore, there should be access to a court, closest to them. I had one case, the one I talked about in Bronx County. I went first to New York County, because I had no idea where the girl was adopted. I only knew she was born in New York County, so I brought it together with another case I had there and the judge said their records said she was never adopted from her home.

61.

You see, this is a violation of due process. Because where should we go? We don’t know anything. We must go to every single County to find out where this girl was adopted. The girl must have been adopted in one of the Counties in New York because she has a New York birth certificate. If you subpoena the records of the Board of Health, you may find out where this girl was adopted, and I go to that court. So I had to go to the Board of Health, then find out where she was adopted, then go to trial in that court. But then I had to take time and effort to compile all that information.
The due process clause and equal protection clause is also discrimination, not only based on standards, but it’s basically a discrimination based on illegitimacy. Statistics have shown that 90% of all non-family adoptions, involves illegitimate children. Therefore, it is not only a status of being adopted, it is also an additional discrimination against illegitimacy, which by the Supreme Court, is pronounced to be unconstitutional.
It might also be a violation of the freedom of worship. Some believe that after death we become reunited with your family members. So, it might, in that connection, be a violation of religion. The Mormons believe in this. I’m not sure.
It might also be a violation of the 13th Amendment. Because your roots are cut off and you are treated like chattel. In early papers, it is even called “indenture.”
These are the constitutional arguments which I think are very, very strong. I wish your Commission would expound on these in an additional report. I think it is very important to clarify them.
(Tape inaudible)

62.

On the contrary, on the birth certificate, the name, the original name, was Irish, which could very well mean that the birth religion of the child was Catholic. Now, I personally couldn’t care less if a child was adopted in a Protestant home or a Catholic home if it fits. But I think one is entitled to know, and I think the position of an agency to opening of the records and denying information or identifying information is wrong, because the agency during the trial agreed to give me all of the information except identifying information as a protection of the natural mother in the case. Where abandonment has taken place I think it is entirely unjustified to consider religion if you have no relationship whatever to the mother. The argument of protecting privacy, I think, can also not exist in children who are freed for adoption by termination of parental rights. Because this, as you might know, today is the greatest source of adoption, because children are not available any more because we have abortions or girls keep their illegitimate babies.
The only source - really big source - for adoption is children for which parental rights have been terminated, which means it leads to the adoption of all the children, and, at any rate, it leads to the adoption of children where the adoptive parents and the natural parents have probably met. Because under Social Services Law 392, you have the foster care review proceeding which requires notice to all parties in the decision of whether or not the child should stay in foster care, return to the mother, or be recommended for adoption. Therefore, in the case of children for whom termination of parental rights is recommended and adoption, there is no argument of protection of privacy of the mother.
At this point, since I talk about it, to anticipate your

63.

question which you have already asked the other speakers: Do I think that the privacy of the mother should be protected in a surrender situation? I would like to tell you my opinion is no. (1) I think there does not exist the privacy of a natural mother, independent of the child, because privacy is something which you own alone. Birth involves two people. Therefore, it is a shared privacy. I don’t invade the privacy of the person with whom I have the act of birth in common. This is a logical argument against invasion of privacy. the more emotional argument and also the legal argument that it is not an invasion of privacy is the following: When a girl signs a surrender, she expressly waives notice of the adoption, and she waives her consent to the future adoption; which means, since, as you know and the agencies confirm, the natural parents are not in touch later with the agency, this mother or parent does not know if their children ever get adopted.
Now, how can you make a promise to somebody with whom you cannot give any promise because you never know if the child really will be adopted? I have seen statistics of the surrendered children. At most, one-third get adopted; the others don’t get adopted. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m right; I worked hard to find that out. Every one of us has skeletons in the closet. Somebody has been a prostitute, somebody has committed a crime, or has committed adultery, or has given birth to an illegitimate child. We might want that to never come out, but we are not protected against that the skeleton won’t walk out of the closet, especially if the skeleton is a human being with certain rights which belong to a human being. I think the adopted person, in

64.

case she gains access to her records, still has to make up her mind, if she wants to have a search or a reunion, this is certainly no argument against the opening of the adoption records. If you ask me how she feels if she then goes and tries to find the mother, this is a different issue, and I think, in that situation, this person is in the same legal situation as any other person who knocks on my door. You have to use the means which are permissible under the law. If you intrude in a way which is an invasion of privacy, then it’s a tort. But, otherwise, there are no grounds, legally, emotionally and by definition, why I feel it would be an invasion of privacy to open the records to an adult adoptee.
The only other point is that it has been argued and also discussed in your report that in case a statute would be created, it would only work prospectively and not retrospectively. I think in your report it has shown very well that up to 1967 the names of all adoptive parents appeared on the petition, so the whole retroactivity would only relate to the time between 1967 and now. This whole sealing provision and that the parties don’t now what is in the petition is only very recent and, therefore, the retroactivity or prospectivity is really not that important. It should be accessible to all of them.
The only other thought I would like to express is that I think access to the records would help the whole adoption practice and process. It would lead certainly in adoption agency practice to a better selection of adoptive parents, because the discussion would include how they would feel if, when their child reached majority, he would be able to find out his name. If the

65.

adoptive parents have not thought through this issue, then, like in other countries, they might not be the best adoptive parents. You have to come to terms with impotency and frustration before you adopt a child. If you have not, I think another family should be selected. If parent then have their children grow up in that kind of atmosphere, that one day if they want to find out, it would only create a better relationship of trust than it was before.

Senator Pisani:
I just want to make it clear, relative to mention of the report. There is no Temporary State Commission report. There is a staff report to us that has not been acted on as of this moment and the consideration on this issue is open on the part of the Commission and that is one of the reasons for having this public hearing. I don’t want the public to be misled into thinking the Commission has spoken on this subject. It has not.

66. DENNIS LYNCH, ADOPTION COORDINATOR, SAINT DOMINIC’S HOME Mr. Lynch:
Today’s legislative hearing deals with the issue of sealed adoption records, which records it is important to emphasize in the beginning, are the joint history of children, biological parents, adoptive parents and agencies. This particular topic of discussion is part of the continuing examination by The Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare and the Assembly Committee on Child Care of the rights of children versus the rights of adoptive parents, biological parents, agencies and in the final analysis, society. In the next fifteen minutes I would like to provide some background information to lend a sense of perspective to this topic then describe the controversy over sealing or opening these records, submit my proposal for resolution of this problem and finally to relate this particular topic to the dilemma of waiting children in general.
Historically, children or infants as they are labeled in the laws of this state, have been the foundation of the family unit whose sanctity has long been respected from the intrusion of the state, federal and local law excepting in a very limited and prescribed manner. The biological parents were given absolute rights over their offspring and children became both de facto and de jurie parental property. It is significant to note that the etymology of the word, infant, is from a Latin word denoting someone unable to speak for themself. Hence, the biological parents of infants were the only spokesman or advocate for their child’s interest.
However, with the festering of scientific, socio-economic and interpersonal changes in our society, the traditional family unit has virtually disappeared. The loss of the extended family, the phenomena

67.

of the deserting parent and the single parent families have created a situation wherein traditional child-rearing practices are no longer applicable. The “liberation” of many parents as well as the more commonly known instances of abuse, neglect and abandonment have today resulted in a discrepancy, which coupled with a lack of expertise in child-rearing, as to who really advocates for the child’s best interest, or as it is correctly referred to “the least detrimental interests of the child.”
The notion of rights for minorities of which children are numerically the largest part has attracted the attention of numerous individuals, societies and organizations. Legislative and judicial conferences throughout this nation have especially recognized that the rights of children need to be protected and that the biological parent cannot always be assumed to act in the child’s best interests. In past court decisions the rights of children have been protected and observed in opinions such as In re Gault, Kent v. United States, and Haley v. Ohio. In respect to the rights of others who are “infants” in the catholic meaning of the word, these minorities; the poor, the aged or the ethnic groups, or ethnic purists as they are known in some political circles, have been recognized in decisions such as the famous Gideon v. Wainwright, Goldberg v. Kelly, Perez v. Levine, and most recently Mendoza v. Levine. These judicial determinations and the resultant legislative enactments of the New York State Assembly and Senate have increasingly and significantly protected the rights of minorities, especially the children of the State of New York.
With this perspective in mind, I would like to address the present

68.

problem of access to and the sealing of adoptive records. First, it is important to understand that case records of children are in the most instances unorganized masses of bureaucratic forms, worthless notations, illegible entries, misfiled papers and occasionally important references to significant persons in the history of adoptees. However, without regard to the content of such records of adoptive children, the significant question is the availability of the case record itself. The past practices of the courts and agencies is to seal such records and not to release any of its contents unless ordered to do so by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The reasons for the aforementioned practice are many. One, it was long believed and in many of the inert agencies the philosophy still exists that the release of children by their biological parents for purposes of adoption was a very shameful and degrading event with horrendous auspices for both child and parent. As a matter of record, the piece of paper used for such a decision by a parent to release his or her child is called an “instrument of surrender”. One can draw many inferences from such terminology but the one that most readily comes to mind is that of a criminal surrendering something to the authorities. there is little consideration to the view that the release of a child for adoption is a positive plan made by a concerned person who recognizes his or her inability to be a parent and assume that duty. Accordingly, laws were enacted to prohibit both the child from knowing of the surrender and the public from knowledge of such an event. One can realistically argue that such a defense of sealed records cannot be

69.

valid in as much as it is a reflection of poor social work practice that should be discontinued.
Another reason for the sealing of records is supported by the argument submitted by many child care agencies that a bond of confidentiality between social worker and biological parent is required if a caseworker is to properly service his or her clients. This argument is absurd because no guarantee of confidentiality can be offered by a caseworker in as much as case records are subject to subpoena, and review by agency staff, state and federal personnel. I would offer that perhaps many agencies are afraid that an unsealing of adoption records would make it more obvious to the public review or inspection by adoptees of the negligence in case-work done by agencies. This could even put agencies in a precarious legal position in regard to possible actions being brought by adoptees.
The attempt to keep records closed is commonly referred to in many instances as a desire to hide mistakes or misrepresentations. It should be noted that this legislative body had long opposed passage of the so-called “sunshine laws” which were intended to shed some light on the activities of our elected officials.
Third, it is argued that biological parents have their rights to confidential consideration or even to secrecy and this must be respected even if it is opposed to the rights of children for information about their past. This argument is just another example of the treatment of child’s rights as subservient to the rights of parents, whose rights were terminated already when the child was freed for adoption.

70.

There are many other reasons offered for the sealing of adoption records, but in the interest of time and in recognition of this committee’s desire to hear as many speakers as possible, I will not list any more such reasons but only wish to assure this committee that a rebuttal can be given for them very easily.
I propose that our laws be amended to provide children with a more expedient and economical means of access to their case records. It is imperative that adoptees know and understand their past so that their present and future will be more comprehensible to them. We are all acquainted with psychological studies which stress the vital significance of the early years of life and with this knowledge it is important to permit these children to discover the events surrounding their early years.
Recognition should be made that today’s adoptees are not the white infants of yesterday, rather they are older and more disturbed children who desperately need every piece of information and every insight into their past which will give them an opportunity to overcome their trauma and have lives as mature adults. Today’s adoptees are living in an era with relatively fewer prejudices in regard to legitimacy versus illegitimacy, adoptive parents versus biological parents, and half or full sibling versus adoptive sibling.
I propose:
1) Social Service Law 384 be amended to include in the instrument of surrender a provision wherein a surrendering parent can express the willingness to permit their surrendered child access to the case record. When a child is freed for adoption by means of a surrender,

71.

said surrender and case record are to be filed in the court where the adoption is finalized and the clerk of the court should provide a book wherein the names of the adoptive child and biological parent and adoptive parent shall be listed and upon the appearance of the adoptee or his attorney such record is to be opened for review. The adoptee need only satisfy the clerk of the court in regard to his or her identity.
2) When the rights of the biological parent or parents are terminated by means of court action, Social Service Law Section 384 and Family Court Act Section 611 shall be amended to provide that at the time of the dispositional hearing, and upon application to the court by the guardian ad litem for the child, the court shall order that the name of the freed child as well as the case record therefore shall be filed in the court where the adoption is finalized and the names recorded in a book in a like manner as mentioned in proposal number one. The motion by the child’s guardian ad litem shall not be denied except upon the showing of good cause by the biological parent or agency.
Such Proposals are only for the adoptee to secure information and not for anyone else.
In conclusion I would like to comment on the implications for adoptable children in general. The concept of identity as defined by Erikson is a life long process and the opening of adoptive records will do little to significantly alter a person’s identity, provided he has struggled with and established one prior. This body’s concern with the identity of children is more appropriately directed toward an examination of the present situation facing the estimated 10,000 children in placement who have been abandoned or neglected by their biological parents and

72.

are without permanency. These are the throwaway children who need this committee’s attention and notwithstanding this committee’s past work, are in an almost hopeless situation that will only lead to anger, frustration, bitterness and ultimately anti-social behavior. What is this committee and this profession of social service doing to foster an identity for these psychological orphans? Unfortunately, the answer is that little significant changes have occurred in the bottom line.
Why is it that the rights of biological parents have long been recognized, and the rights of putative fathers have recently been addressed in the court decisions of Stanley v. Illinois and in New York in Orsini v. Blasi, yet the rights of children, specifically to permanency have been ignored and recently suffered a set-back in the Child v. Beame case. Why is it that our state expends so little to remedy the plight of the ten thousand neglected children and yet invests so heavily in capital, business and non-human services? The bankruptcy facing this state is a moral one and to this we must answer. Justice Jerome Frank of the United States Supreme Court observed, “The test of the moral quality of a civilization is its treatment of the weak and powerless children, this state has already defaulted in its obligation to them and the question remains to what degree are we a part of this decadence and when will this state begin and to what degree will it attempt to meet the needs of some of its citizens of tomorrow, today.

73.

Assemblyman Gottfried:
If we were talking about legislation to give the child in the future the right to have access to the records, regardless of the natural parents’ willingness to surrender children for adoption?

Mr. Lynch:
I think it would have a significant impact, but the question really is not what are we doing to cater to the rights of the biological parent. The question should be, more appropriately, or should address itself to, what about the rights of the children. Now, the parents have rights that, supposedly, they are obligated to carry out, regardless of whether we seal or unseal the records, and I think that is the more fundamental question.

Assemblyman Gottfried:
Well, at this point, a question has been raised that if we don’t give natural parents that potential for anonymity in the future, they might, instead of putting their children up for adoption in an orderly fashion, simply abandon them, which would give them anonymity. Do you think that is a danger?

Mr. Lynch:
From my experience with the fifty or so surrenders I have taken and the hundreds of hours I have spent in New York City Family Courts I don’t think that it is going to be a danger. I think that parents want to know that they are providing something good for their children and they want to be able to understand this is a positive action, not something that’s going to bring shame, etc.

74. MS. LORRAINE DUSKY, EDITOR, FREE LANCE WRITER, NATURAL MOTHER Ms. Dusky:
I am a magazine editor, free lance writer, and also a natural mother who gave up her child for adoption ten years ago. Because of my interest in this, I have written a number of articles on adoption, particularly the sealed records. In doing so, I have talked to between thirty and forty natural mothers.
You keep mentioning whether the mother might have second thoughts about giving up her child for adoption if she knew that her anonymity would not be protected. If I had known that some day I could meet my daughter it would have been so much easier to sign those papers. My social worker and I went over this point again and again and again. Never, never, could I see her, not ever, time heals all wounds, she would say. It does not heal this one. I did not have something in my body, give birth, and then just give her away without wondering, “what is she like?” I would do anything for a scrap of information now. I am not saying that at age ten I should know where she is, but I would just love to know whether she likes poetry, whether she takes tap dancing lessons, or if she was adopted.
I finally did write to my adoption agency about two years ago, and although there was no information about her now, I mean I wasn’t asking for addresses or names. I finally learned that she was adopted. That is a very real trauma. I’ve met many adoptees whose stories never jibe with what the mothers are told, because I’m familiar with many reunion cases also.
I think the records should be opened to adoptees. It

75.

should not just be from this time on but should deal with the very real problem of the thousands of New York State adoptees, and the five million or so adoptees and then their natural parents in the county.

Senator Pisani:
Suppose the natural mother, whoever she might be, does not want her identity to be disclosed. Should she have this right, do you feel?

Ms. Dusky:
No, I don’t.

Senator Pisani:
Suppose she said, “I don’t want anyone to know anything about me. This is a final act on my part and one of the considerations of surrender of this child is that I retain anonymity for the rest of my life. I want to get it behind me.” Let’s assume she has that attitude. Right, wrong, or indifferent. Should she be entitled to have it as a matter of right, or should she, somewhere down the line, suffer the trauma of a confrontation?

Ms. Dusky:
(A) I don’t believe a confrontation would be traumatic.
(B) No, I don’t believe she has the right to that privacy.
I think that woman’s right is infringing upon the rights of adoptees. You have a child - it is something to deal with.

Senator Pisani:
There are others who share your views and other that disagree with you, but I wondered what you thought about it.

76.

Ms. Dusky:
Some research has been done. When it has been done with the natural mother, specifically, almost to a woman it is so rare that they do not want to find out what happened to their child. Mrs. Dooley, from the New York Foundling Home, testified this morning, and I was very gratified to hear what she said because I wasn’t aware of what they were doing. Later on, I talked to her and asked her how many women did not want to meet their children - the ones they contacted. It turns out there were none. She said that there was one that was reluctant at first, and then changed her mind. So that, when the Adoption Research Project in California put ads in newspapers asking for information, they got many letters from natural mothers. Some of them were very moving and passionate. One that’s been quoted quite often is something to the effect that no cross is harder to bear than losing a child and not knowing what happened to it.
Therefore, all this supposed feeling of natural mothers who don’t want to be identified I really think is more in your eyes than in reality. Yes, it could be true, but in those cases I still don’t think that’s right.

Mrs. Glass:
You say you’ve been writing articles about this subject. In your research that you must have done, have you had any information from the State of Connecticut?

Ms. Dusky:
Just that, as I am aware, the records are open in the State of Connecticut to those who seek them.

77.

Mrs. Glass:
They have recently been closed again.

Ms. Dusky:
You must be aware that they are open in Finland and Wales and Scotland and havoc does not break in the land. And a bill was being considered by Parliament; they were overhauling all of their adoption laws to open the records to children at the age of nineteen, I believe; I do not know if that has been passed, but that was what was being recommended by the British Association of Adoption Agencies. I was there about six months ago and spoke to them.

78. MS. BETTY JEAN LIFTON, AUTHOR, PLAYWRIGHT, ADOPTEE Ms. Lifton:

I am very happy to be able to testify before you today. As you may know, I am a writer and journalist. I have recently written a book, TWICE BORN, Memoirs of An adopted Daughter, about my own psychological development as an adoptee, woman, wife and mother as a result of the sealed record which closed me off from knowledge of my biological past. I have also written an article in The New York Times this past January called The Search, in which I tried, in my best journalist tradition, to tell all sides of the controversy over the sealed records. A controversy I know well.
Now I will be quite frank with you -- I have read the REPORT CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF ADOPTION RECORDS TO AN ADOPTED CHILD AT THE AGE OF 21 submitted to Sen. Joseph Pisani, chairman of the Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare by his staff. I believe it was sent to me by accident, and I am aware that in revealing this I may never get another mailing from that office. But I must take the chance.
I was impressed by its bulk, by its length. I was delighted that the staff did so much research on the subject. I learned a lot. For example, I learned that there was some question as to whether the 1967 law sealing the records in New York State was understood to limit the adoptee’s access. That really blew my mind. It seems that the main focus was on the limitation of disclosure as between the natural parents and

79.

the adoptive parents. The Court of Appeals has never addressed the adoptee’s right to access.
Allow me to quote from page 13 of the report:
“This statute does not prohibit disclosure of the child’s surname to the child himself or to the adoptee following his majority, and it may be argued with some force that if the Legislature had intended to bar access to the adoptee, it would have said so. In summary, whatever may be the preferable public policy, it is apparent that the current state law is at best vague and ambiguous concerning the propriety of disclosing from court records, an adoptee’s biological history following his majority.”

My immediate thought was that we adoptees are being kept from a right that is already ours legally --that even now we have the right at the age of majority to get our court records. And that all of our suffering to date may have been unnecessary.
I ask you to look into this.
I also ask you to understand that this legal ambiguity is being further complicated by the pressures from adoption agencies, who feel their former policies being threatened, and by lobbying of adoptive parent groups, those good burghers who elect you to follow their wishes -- in this case, keeping the records of their adoptive children secret. I am not aware of lobbies of natural mothers fighting to be saved from their own children; yet to protect their own interests the agencies and adoptive parents are invoking the right of the natural mothers.
I am aware as I speak to you that this same report I have been quoting has come to conclusions which you have already read --not to enact Senator Lewis’ amendment to the Social Services Law because “It fails to protect the interests of natural parents in adoptions heretofore completed.”
I will not ask why this report was not submitted after hearing the testimony of people here today like myself. I would like to think that the fate of Senator Lewis’ bill

80.

has not itself already been sealed. I would like to believe that what I have to say, as well as the others who have come up here on the long trip to Albany, will still have the possibility of influencing your thinking about opening the sealed records.
I am honest when I tell you I am not optimistic.
I have heard that many of you feel it is too radical just to spring the records open. That you are looking for some half-way measure, some tool