From: "Inch, Diana" <DInch@csbsju.edu>
Subject: BNLEAD BEST: NARD in Herald-Sun (Durham, NC) article - Roberta MacDonald
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 19:14:37 -0600
To: bnlead@lists.best.com
An article and correction.
===
Copyright 1999 The Durham Herald Co. -- The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.) November 30, 1999, Tuesday; Durham; Pg. C1;
BYLINE: Melinda Stubbee Columnist
Since she turned 18, Roberta McDonald, like most Americans, has enjoyed the rights that go along with legally becoming an adult.
She can vote, drive a car, drink alcohol, serve on a jury and fight for her country.
But unlike the majority of U.S. citizens, there is one thing that McDonald doesn't have access to that many of us take for granted: a copy of her original birth certificate.
That's because McDonald, now 49, was adopted. And even though she's been reunited with her birth mother, the law in New Jersey, where she was born, prevents her from ever seeing the scrap of paper that bears her biological mom's name.
McDonald, who moved to Durham in 1998, lives too far away to lobby for changes in New Jersey, so she's decided to work for open records in North Carolina. On Friday, which is National Adoptees' Rights Day, she will pass out leaflets supporting her cause outside the Legislative Building in Raleigh.
"This is not about reunions with birth parents. It's about rights," McDonald told me over coffee last week. "Adoptees should have the same rights as any other American - the right to have a copy of their original birth certificate."
It's a hot-button issue right now, as a group of birth mothers in Oregon is fighting to overturn a year-old law there that allows adoptees to see their original birth certificates. The women claim that the law violates their constitutional rights by breaking promises of confidentiality.
"Our society is sympathetic to the birth parents that once gave up a child and do not wish to see that child again," McDonald says in a written account of her adoption experience. "Many birth parents claim 'promises' were made. But in reading my adoption papers, I find no such types of 'promises.'"
McDonald's passion for adoptee rights was stimulated a few years ago, when she and her adoptive family were getting ready to go on a cruise. Her citizenship was questioned when she submitted a copy of her birth certificate, and immigration officials took issue with the date it was registered.
Of course she didn't have her original birth certificate, but a member of her adoptive family was able to get the registration date changed on the one she had and she was cleared for the trip.
"When you request a copy of your original birth certificate, someone in a vital statistics office looks it up, and then cuts out the names of the birth parents," she says. "A total stranger has access to a document that I don't have access to.
"After my reunion with my birth mother I still couldn't get a copy of my birth certificate and I said, 'This is ludicrous.' "
The story of McDonald's adoption is a fascinating one - and too detailed to describe in this space. The bottom line is that she and her adoptive mother shared the same father. Because of the ongoing relationship between him and her birth mother, McDonald, unlike many adoptees, knew her biological mother as a young child.
But because the circumstances of her adoption were never really explained to her, McDonald didn't think about it much and didn't try to find her birth mother until a few years ago. The two were reunited in 1996 and have continued their relationship. McDonald says it hasn't always been easy, but she has no regrets, and finally knows the details of her family tree and medical history.
Now, McDonald is focusing her energies on raising awareness of the open records issue in North Carolina, and hopes that legislation could be proposed by 2001. Earlier this year, a measure to create an adoption registry failed.
She's willing to address the concerns of birth parents by putting conditions on opening adoption records that would penalize adoptees from contacting their birth parents without their consent. That's how the law works in Tennessee.
"Just because you have the birth certificate doesn't mean you will automatically go searching for the person whose name is on it," McDonald says. "Birth parents would have the right to say no to contact if they don't want it."
McDonald understands that those of us who aren't adopted might not understand why access to a birth certificate is an issue. She asks that you think of it this way: She's fighting for a constitutional right afforded to every citizen in the United States ... except adult adoptees.
Write to Melinda Stubbee in c/o The Herald-Sun, P.O. Box 2092, Durham, NC 27702; or e-mail her at stubbee98@yahoo.com.
1999 The Durham Herald Co. -- The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.) December 2, 1999, Thursday; Editorial; Pg. A14;
Thanks to Melinda Stubbee for her Nov. 30 column "Adoptee fights for the right to see her original birth certificate." Open records are about rights, not reunions. However, the following statement was incorrect: "She's willing to address the concerns of birth parents by putting conditions on opening adoption records that would penalize adoptees from contacting their birth parents without their consent."
I believe any biological parent or adoptee has a right to say no to contact, but in opposition to the Tennessee ruling, there should be no prosecution for contact.
My proposal includes a "Contact Preference Form" similar to what Oregon passed, with three choices: I want contact, I want contact but through an intermediary or I do not wish contact. As adults we respect existing legislation, such as restraining orders and harassment laws that protect those not wanting contact.
This Friday, National Adoptee Rights Day, I and other people interested in this issue will be on Fayetteville Street Mall in front of the Wake County Courthouse from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. handing out pamphlets and fliers to educate the public. Anyone who wishes to join us this Friday can do so by contacting me at the North Carolina Coalition for Open Records, P.O. Box 62144, Durham, NC 27705 or at nccor@mindspring.com.
ROBERTA MacDONALD
The writer is chairwoman of the North Carolina Coalition for Open Records.
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