My name is Amy K. Burt. I have been writing you for years now about allowing adoptees access to the very document that accurately records our birth. As an adoptee, I feel that you as legislators are allowing adoption agencies, attorneys, and the state itself to violate my right to privacy. I am being denied access to the very document that records my birth on the basis of my birth.You have been sucked into the mythology and misinformation that the adoption industry wants you to believe. I am here to tell you that you are wrong and I can prove it.
The right to privacy is based and has been contested on the basis of governmental interference into our lives. I read recently in an newspaper article about this issue. I found this part very interesting.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information.
Now I don't want my natural mother's private communications nor her financial information. I want my original birth certificate. My adoptive mother and I want the adoption finalization paperwork. Its ours. It records important information about OUR lives. The state has no interest in it. The state of Indiana continues to keep it from us.
Another interesting tidbit is the Fourth Amendment. You are denying me my papers. It is an unreasonable seizure based upon the status of my birth. If anyone continues to shame my natural mother, it is the State of Indiana. I, for one, am sick of it. I will not have her humiliated again by the actions of both the state and the adoption industry.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Have you read this new research paper put out by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Research Institute? What about this one? Both of these reports debunk the theories, mythologies, and misinformation put out by the NCFA. Read the statistical information in both of these studies.
As I continue to research, I wonder how does Indiana protect prospective adoptive parents. Everything that I have read confirms in my mind that adoption is win/win/win for adoption agencies alone. They ply on a prospective adoptive family's money and infertility. They ply on a woman's right to raise her own child. They seal it all up away from the prying eyes of the public under the guise of protecting everyone living adoption. Meanwhile, they continue to profit under the guise of non-profit status. We no longer want protection from each other from the state of Indiana. We want our choices given back to us.
It will always be hard for me to know how the adoption agency treated my natural mother. It is her dignity that I fight hard. It is the dignity of my adoptive mother that I fight hard. It is my own dignity that I fight hard. I do this not just for me but for 10% of this nations' adoption people. It is time for you to give us back our right to privacy. Its time for you as a state legislator to remove both the state and the adoption industry out of our personal lives. It is time for you to improve adoption for all living adoption.
Sincerely,
Amy K. Burt
1 comment:
This is a great letter Amy. Way to go!
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