The New Law: The Opening of Medical and Birth Certificate Information

In May of 2014, open adoption activists celebrated the Governor’s signing a bill into law that will allow them to get their original birth records, beginning in January of 2017.

Governor Christie’s sister was adopted in the 1970’s, and her husband also was adopted.  The couple, the Governor said, could not get medical information under previous law.  That will all change in 2017.

The new law requires birth mothers to identify in writing the medical conditions from which they and their family members suffer, which will alert adopted children to illnesses they may encounter later in life.

Said Christie, “[The new law] protect[s] and respect[s] the interests of all of the people involved in the adoption process, while at the same time making sure that the miracle of adoption — the miracle that was experienced by my own family and is still being experienced by us today, is available to as many people in New Jersey who have an open heart and a willingness to share their home and their lives with a new member of the family.”

Under the new law, adopted people may first apply to the NJ Department of Health for their birth certificates on January 17, 2017, giving activists on both sides ample time to educate birth parents about their privacy rights and submit a contact preference form to the State expressing their wishes.

Birth parents requesting “no contact’ still will be asked to give the Department of Health an updated family medical history every 10 years until they reach age 40, and every fifth year thereafter.

For adoptions finalized after Aug. 1, 2015, birth certificates will be available immediately to adopted children, and in their entirety.

Said one of the bill’s prime advocates, “[Adoptees] now have an opportunity to know all of the things that someone from a traditional birth family possess[es], which is not only the knowledge about our medical history but who we are, what our ethnicity is, what our family stories are — all those stories we tell around the dinner table on Thanksgiving.”

The New Style:  Adoptions May Be Consciously Open From the Start

Knowledge about birth parents and medical history are not the only changes taking place in our society.  Some birth parents want and receive the ability to stay in touch with the adopting parents, and the child or children being adopted.

In traditional adoptions, birth parents sought or acquiesced in complete anonymity, and adoptive parents wanted a cut-off from the past, so they could raise their new baby in complete peace.

Today’s open adoption could mean that birth parents have an informal or formal role in the child’s life.  This may happen when a relative or close friend is the adoptive parent, or perhaps when a step parent adopts his or her spouse’s child/children from a former relationship, yet the natural parent in either case stays involved in the life or lives of the child or children.

“Involvement” may be restricted to the biological parent’s getting updated progress reports, or expanded to include the child’s knowledge of the adoption and periodic physical contacts with the child.

It is important to customize and memorialize the arrangement, to avoid misunderstandings between birth parents and adoptive parents, and emotional upset or confusion for child or children.

Open Adoption Agreements

It is wise for the parties to open adoption arrangements to prepare, with the assistance of legal counsel, a written and signed Adoption Agreement, to state the agreed upon rules.  These may be prepared formally or informally.

There is a useful role for supportive legal counsel for the parties and the child/children.  There is a role as well for neutral third parties, whether mental health practitioners or family mediators, who will assist the parties from time to time when issues arise that could destabilize the system as designed.  These efforts will help the parties keep emotions in check and avoid a courtroom struggle that could be destructive, time consuming, and expensive.

Conclusion

If you or someone you know needs legal assistance in the adoption setting, whether in creating or modifying an adoption or dealing with “open” or “closed” adoption issues, then they or you should contact experienced family law attorneys.  We will sit down and review the facts, research the law, and provide an opinion and recommendations for immediate action.  This is an area in which legal advice and assistance are vitally important.  Call or write us today.  We will provide you with the help you need, right now.