Dear Inkling Readers,



Imagine getting adopted and not knowing who your parents are. People are holding you back from finding out where you came from. Your parents and the laws say you don't have the right to know who your birth parents are. No one will let you access any information about them. You wonder in your younger years, who they are, and get emotionally damaged, because you don't know, and you won't know until you reach the certain age. You will suffer more because you had to wait so long and you realize what's going on. Kids who are adopted should be able to access information about their parents at any time in their life. They shouldn't have to be stopped by anyone. It's their choice. When the child becomes a grown adult and gets a piece of the record they might get hurt worse because they understand it more. I think the laws need to be changed, and children should be able to know where they came from, and who their birth parents are at any age they desire if they are adopted.


Oh, sure the parents may think different about kids being able to see their birth parents for many reasons. The the legislature might be afraid of law suits, because the child could get hurt. Parents and people who make the laws might be terrified as well because the child could get abused by the birth parents when the child went and saw them. The child could get devotedly damaged about the situation if their parents didn't want to even see them, especially after they got their hopes up and thought that they would want to. Parents may be afraid too, because they might believe the child will show become antagonistic to the birthparents more than their adoptive parents, if the child meets them. So anyway, parents and the legislature that make the laws have different reasons against my opinion.


“All humans, in order to grow and become mature adults, must resolve their relationship with their parents,” says Vincentte Scheppen, a psychiatric social worker who worked with adoptive children for many years. What this means is that emotionally children need their birthparents. They need their parents because they might do something like what their parents did to them. According to adoption.com it says, “As a small child, she will not understand how a mother could give her up, or abandon her. Adoptees may feel they must have been a bad baby, or that the birth mother was an uncaring person.” If kids knew the real reasons, and could meet up with their birthparents kids may not think this way. Children may imagine that their adopted parents may depart from them like their birthparents did, because they feel like they aren't wanted in life. Adoption affects kids in many different ways, and they aren't always good ways. If you unseal the records children around the world can find out the true reasons, meet, and bond with their birthparents. They might even find that they really are still loved by the people who brought them into the universe.


Children need their parents to grow up for health reasons, and identity issues not just because they want to. Helen Polaski a woman who works with adoption said, “Adopted Genetics play a significant role in an individual’s risk for certain illnesses. Adopted children often want to know the medical history of their birth parents, even if they don’t want to know the parents themselves.” When they grow up they might want to watch out if they don't know their birth parents and their health issues. When the person that gets adopted has kids they should be aware for any unique signs that the child may develop. For example if a child is over weight and can't lose weight they need to know if obesity ran in the family history. Paul Klaassan was a child who got adopted. He didn't know that he had any diseases that ran in his family, but while he was searching for his mother he got diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. It is a defect found in about 2% of the population and one that would be screened for, if their is a known family history of it, but he didn't know his parents because records were sealed. Children need to know who their birthparents are for identity reasons as well. Kids do wonder why their face looks like that. Why they're so tiny, and ask themselves was my mom diminitive to? They need to know where their identity came from and what their health is going to look like in the future.



All in all, children shouldn't be stopped from having access to their own information of their adoption. They shouldn't have to wait until they're 18 and then get intensely damaged by the pain of the wait. Experts say children can't be wondering who they really are, they need to know. Laws might protest against this but children are the ones who matter in this topic, not the legislature. Children are the ones who strive to see their birth parents, and would like to know a little about them but they can't if their records are sealed. According to fine line.com its says, “By some estimates, six million Americans were adopted as Children. Currently, adopted children in many states are only allowed to view partial of their adoption record.” These six million kids should be able to fine the real records not just bits and pieces of it. Unseal adopted records for children at any age. Remember, they're the ones who want to know their birthparents. Not you!