When your “yes” means nothing
This is something I just learned.
Let’s say you’re an adoptee born in the no-man’s land between 1964 and 1996. (When “Adoption Records are Sealed and Only Opened by a Court Order” thanks to H.B. 84.) Let’s say you contact the adoption professional who oversaw your adoption and give him/her written permission to share your identifying information with your first parents. Let’s say that your first parents have also met with this adoption professional and have also given him/her written permission to share their identifying information with you. Can the adoption professional share said information now that s/he has the two signed release of information documents? No. No.
Your consent doesn’t matter because it’s all about the court order.
Some of the arguments I’ve heard about not opening records is that it wouldn’t be fair to the people at the other end of the search (I don’t buy this but there — that’s one of the arguments). But in Ohio, the government is so worried about “protecting” people separated by adoption that even when everyone WANTS to find each other, Ohio says no.
Now the adoption professional certainly could blow off the law and hand the info over but then said adoption professional is at risk of getting his/her license revoked if someone gets angry at them for breaking the law. Given how emotional adoption discussion tends to be, it’s not beyond comprehension that some angry person might get said professional in trouble if they got wind of these mututal consent reunions.
So you get a court order, right? Or at least you try. Only if you talk to adoptees who have tried to get court orders, they will tell you about judges who say, “I’m holding your original birth certificate right here and I’m not giving it to you. Do you know why? Because you have no right to betray your real parents like this.” Or they say, “You should be grateful that you’ve had a home with loving parents and you should let the past lie.” (I know — it’s insane but it’s true. It all depends on what judge you get.)*
Anyway, I just learned this (I thought mutual written consent superceded the law) and thought I’d share.
*If your first parent or a biological sibling also goes to the court then the two of you might be able to hook up. But you can’t just hook up in your old lawyer’s office unless s/he wants to risk their law license.
That is horrible. I wonder if other states do the same thing? I can’t imagine even a judge not handing over the information when both the parties have signed Waivers. Who do they think they are? This is so unsettling.
Teri Brown
http://www.AdoptionRecords.com
Well clearly firstparents and adoptees can’t make decisions on their own about what they WANT…best to leave that decision, you know, the one about THEIR OWN LIVES to professionals.
Ugh.
Thanks Dawn. This is something I’ve been unclear on. I do know that even adoptees who have found a bparent through a means other than a the state-facilitated reunion, cannot get their obc unsealed UNLESS both parties sign on to the Ohio Reunion Registry. Then the petition it goes to court and the judge decides. I’ve heard, but I don’t have any documentation that in some cases judges have refused to unseal, when both parties are right there requesting it!
What are they so afraid of?