Adoptees should have full access to their birth and adoption records when they turn 18 years old. An adoptee should not have to beg adoption agencies or petition the courts for their own information concerning their past and birth families. Birth parent information should also be provided and leave it up to the birth parents to decide if they want to have a relationship with the child they gave up.

Adoption does not only involve babies. Foster children and other adoptions are also impacted by the laws that govern adoptions. We need to make a point to view the entire bill or law and look at the positive and negative. By trying to make changes for the better in the adoption community, we do not want to undo the positive things that a bill or law may have on adoption. In some cases there will be areas that need to be amended while other areas should remain intact.

Below you will find some information on The Uniform Adoption Act of 1994 some good and some not some good.

The Uniform Adoption Act of 1994

• Seals birth records for 99 years from the date of adoption.

• Makes it a crime for people to share birth information with an adoptee.

• Requires consent or relinquishment only from fathers who have a specific parenting relationship with the child.

• Allows foster parents to seek to adopt children that have been in their care.

• Set strict time limits to appeal or challenge an adoption of six months.

• During the six month period if the adoption is opposed then opposing party has to prove clearly and convincingly that it is in the best interest of the child.

Sealing an adoptee's birth records and adoption information for 99 years, I do not believe it benefits anyone. When people do try and assist an adult adoptee by providing them information on their birth records or birth parents, I do not think it should be a crime. These are two areas of The Uniform Adoption Act of 1994 that I personally feel need to be abolished to help reform adoption.

More reading:

What do Adoptees Hope to Find?

Sunshine and Lollipops