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Oct 16, 2006 9:03 pm US/Eastern
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Lawmakers Want To Make Adoption Answers Easier
by Cydney Long
TRENTON (CBS 3) ―
Those who are adopted often have questions about their personal backgrounds and now, New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it easier for those adoptees to get their answers.
Larry Newman was adopted, and he hopes to help thousands of other adoptees in New Jersey find out their medical and ethnic backgrounds.
"There are an infinity of questions that simply evaporate once you get the answers. There is always an underlying doubt was this meant to be? Am I who I really think I am," said Newman.
Newman is in favor of an adoption bill that would allow adoptees access to the so called "long version" of their birth records, which reveal biological parents' names.
"Diabetes runs in my birth mother's side of the family, glaucoma and melanoma run in my birth father's family and you wouldn't have known otherwise," said Newman.
The delicate and complex issue was heard Monday in a Senate Health committee hearing in Trenton.
The New Jersey Catholic Conference, ACLU, National Council for Adoption and New Jersey Right to Life all oppose the legislation in regard that it needs to balance the privacy rights of a birth parent, along with an adoptee's "right to know."
With adoption rates already low, those opposed fear the law could discourage confidential adoption and perhaps encourage abortion.
"Birth mothers past, present and future must maintain control over their confidential information," said Lee Allen with the National Council for Adoption.
Thomas Snyder, attorney with N.J. State Bar Association, says because the bill would work retroactively it may do more harm than good.
"Certain people may've remarried and never disclosed to their spouse or children this private personal decision they had in their life," said Snyder.
If the legislation passes it would allow birth parents to opt out and maintain their privacy.
They would have anywhere from 12 months to two years to contact the N.J. State registrar and protest the release of their names, but in doing so they would have to provide their medical, social and cultural history.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)