Saturday, January 03, 2009

ILLINOIS, INDIANA AND CONFIDENTIAL INTERMEDIARY SYSTEM

Santa's elves delivered the Christmas wishes of adoptees in Illinois. Three Illinois bloggers have been talking about it for a while. Illinois has had the same CI system that Indiana has but it is more complex than Indiana. Currently Illinois legislators will be considering legislation that basically allows the previous CI contacts and denials to stand. Those natural parents still have control over the original birth certificate. They do not have to state any kind of preference because the CIs do it for them. That leads to corruption. The natural parents should tell the adoptee that they do not want contact. It should not come from a governmental entity.

I too have had horrors in the CI system. I know that at the end of my search, there will be a death. I hope that my father is still alive because he wanted me. My agency does not contact natural fathers. So I was not allowed to contact my father through them. I am tired of agencies controlling adoptees and their families.

Another blog brought up the point of free association. I got to thinking about this. Many of these right to association lawsuits are about labor and right to exclude individuals from specialized groups. The author brings up good points but the key thing here is that these groups or individuals who chose to exclude do it to the individual's face either by letter, by email or by phone. They do not get to have the protection of a government entity such as that of CI system in both Indiana and Illinois. There is no other group of people that have that kind of specialized governmental protection. Many of these women do not want that kind of protection. They do not want the government, any group or especially any adoption agency affiliated group speaking for them. They do not want the government collecting medical information on them. It is a violation of their HIPPA rights. So when does it become okay to violate the HIPPA laws in this country? My medical information does not belong to my children. However, I do educate my children on possible health issues. It is my job as a mother.

These laws also act as a restraining order against adoptees and natural parents. We do not have the luxury of having due process rights. We are found guilty because of the status of our birth. Even though there is a few mothers who did not voluntarily relinquish their rights, other women did do sign away their rights. They by no means relinquished the rights of adoptees.

What this all amounts to is the control of the adoption industry over its participants. They want to retain that control. The shroud of secrecy which was wanted by adoptive parents is now hurting them as well. We are still in this position because of the fears of the past. Adoptees should not be held accountable for the reproductive decisions of women in the future. The reproduction portion of our lives are over and done with. Our mothers for the most part are not able to reproduce any longer. I personally do not want special privileges but I do want equal rights as the non adopted.

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