A new article by Patrick R. Brannigan, State's adoption law protects privacy of birth mothers, too, appeared on APP.com and it seems to be getting a lot of comments from birth moms. Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, takes a strong stance of privacy or closed adoption records. He states that closed records have been around for decades, so basically, why fix what's not broken. He quoted some research from 1977 and then went on to make some points about closed adoption records. His main point, it's for the protection of all members of the triad.

The other reasons noted in Brannigan's article:

• Secrecy of identity for bio parents allows placement of child and for the bio parents to go on with their lives.
• Records being kept private allow adoptive parents to go on with their lives without fear of interference by birth family.
• Records being closed also keeps adoptee from being found out as an illegitimate child.

Yep, that research sounds like it came from 1977.

I think I'm at a loss with this issue as I live in Kansas, an open records state. So, when an adoptee reaches age 18 here that person can fill out a form and gain access to their adoption file.

Are there any other reasons out there for closed adoption records besides privacy? What have you heard? What do you think? Click "comments" below and share. If you need more information check out the links below.

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Learn more about Adoption Records:
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute Explores Opening Adoption Records - Research into the issue.
Open Records vs. Birth Mother Protection - A birth mother speaks out.
Tools for Open Records Activism - Model for legislation.