Dear Supporter,
I am contacting you in advance of the scheduled return of Minister Zappone's Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 to the Seanad on the 12th of June, 2019.
As you have signed our petition, you are no doubt already aware that Adoptees in Ireland are one of the few, if only, groups still restricted by last century legislation. This was a time when illegitimacy was socially unacceptable, and the ‘clean break’ policy was considered to be best practice.
It was a policy reflective of its time, a time when homosexuality was illegal, contraception was not accessible and divorce did not exist.
While we now acknowledge that most of these policies were wrong and have moved away from their narrow, restrictive view but unfortunately the view as regards closed adoptions has not legislatively changed substantially since the Adoption Act in 1952, 67 years ago.
Adoptees who seek information on their own Health, History and Heritage are denied this most basic knowledge of themselves. The lack of identity rights that Adoptees have is in stark contrast to the progresses that society has made with this issue, but yet Ireland is one of the very few countries who still deny Adoptees access to their own birth certificate or medical information. This is contrary to international norms and medical best practice.
Adoptees have no acknowledged identity rights which means no automatic access to their own birth certificate, no right to know if they had a sibling also placed for adoption, no right to know who their biological father is, no right to know who their biological mother is, no right to know their own family context, no knowledge of their heritage or family history.
Shockingly, Adoptees also have absolutely no rights over their own name. Adoptees names are deemed to be ‘immutable’ or unchangeable. So while society progresses with much needed acknowledgement of identity rights and the rights of the individual over their own name, identity, gender etc, none of these rights have been afforded or extended to adoptees.
The system that is in place at the moment is immensely damaging to adoptees, it is not reflective of our nations position as stated by An Taoiseach as being an ‘open, modern and liberal society’ that does not discriminate. Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, we do discriminate. We discriminate against those born illegitimate at a time it was socially unacceptable.
This system needs to change.
Unfortunately, Minister Zappone's bill does not deliver this much needed reform, it simply reflects the situation as it currently stands. Any legislation regarding adoptees needs to afford Adoptees the same rights as other citizens in matters of identity, Health, History and Heritage. That is the standard it must reach, to do any less is to continue to discriminate based on circumstances of birth.
Minister Zappone recently stated that she seeks to ‘tilt the balance strongly in favour of applicants' right to identity and access to birth information while maintaining necessary protections for a small cohort of potentially vulnerable birth parents’ while these developments are most welcome, we feel that there is insufficient data available to legislators to fully appreciate the impact that this legislation will have.
Minister Zappone recently acknowledged that ‘no data’ exists as to the number of Adoptees who also had siblings placed for adoption. Data such as this is vital knowledge before deciding to progress any legislation that may affect Adoptees having vital knowledge of not yet themselves but their family context.
We can do better than this for people who have waited so long for acknowledgement of their own Identity.
Aitheantas has been actively campaigning to increase awareness about this issue for several months. We now need to deliver a strong public voice that we do not want this narrow, restrictive view of people based on circumstances of birth in our legislation.
But we need your help.
We need to increase our petition numbers.
Please ask at least one person to sign our petition. If everyone who signed asked one more person, our petition would double, two more and it would treble.
We want to have this issue dealt with comprehensively, we want Ireland to lead the way as regards legislation and Adoptee supports and access to information. We want authentic equality in our open, modern and liberal society.
Just one more signature could make all the difference.
We're counting on you.
Many thanks,
Maree Ryan-O’Brien
Aitheantas
If you wish to participate in the Department of Children & Youth Affairs survey on the introduction of open/semi open adoptions for under 18’s, please go here.