Background on Adoption Records in Washington State
Adoptees have TWO birth certificates:
- Original Birth Certificate, which contains the person’s original name, location, date and time of birth, and name of birth parents.
- Amended Birth Certificate, which contains the person’s name as given by the adoptive parents, the adoptive parents’ names (as if they gave birth), and location and date of birth.
Upon adoption, the original birth certificate is sealed, and the amended birth certificate becomes the adoptee's only accessible form of identity documentation.
Adoption records were sealed in 1943
Prior to 1943, adopted persons in Washington State had free and clear access to their original birth certificates. The state began routinely amending and sealing birth certificates in 1943. The intent was to protect the adopted child from the possible shame associated with being relinquished for adoption. At this point records were sealed from the public but the adoptee was able to access his or her own information upon reaching adulthood.
Over the next decade, social policy changed. The theory that adoption should be a complete substitute for a family became popular. The intent became to erase all ties between the baby and the birth mother and family. This was designed to ensure a successful adoption and to assure the adopted family that there would be no interference from the birth family.
The idea of a "blank slate" was en vogue. Social workers and legislators believed that the birth mother, the adoptee, and the adoptive family would be better off pretending as if the child had actually been born to the adoptive family. Though these social policies have long been proven false, they still control adoption law as it applies to most adopted adults in our state and country.
When the State of Washington began sealing the adoption files, they sealed ALL files, past, present, and future. At that point, any and all information regarding the adopted person's birth, heritage, and name were cut off from the adoptee permanently. This was the beginning of the unfair treatment of adopted adults, and the denial of their human right to their own identity.
Conditional Access
In 1993, a bill passed that provides conditional access to a select few adoptees. Those whose adoptions are finalized after October 1, 1993 might receive a copy of their original birth certificate only if the birth parents have not filed an "affidavit of non-disclosure" (a document which blocks an adoptee from being able to get a copy of his/her original birth certificate).
It's important to note that in the 17+ years since this law went into effect, not one single birth parent has filed an affidavit of non-disclosure.
As the law stands today in Washington, some adopted persons may access their original birth information while others are completely barred from it, simply based on their date of birth.
Still others are vulnerable to have their identity right extinguished forever if a fellow adult citizen chooses to exercise a right granted in 1993 to birth parents who had formerly released all rights and responsibilities over their now adult child.
Clearly this is unequal and inequitable treatment of adopted persons and it must be corrected.