Senate Discusses Adoption Bill

The door is opened a crack by the State Senate for adoptees wanting their original birth certificates.Supporters of the bill say it’s a matter of finding out who they are. Critics say it’s another chip taken out of the wall of secrecy that the state has maintained on adoptions for decades. The proposal lets people, once they pass 50, ask for access to their original birth records. Opponents worry that a 50-year-old adoptee will get the birth records and will contact the birth parents, now in their 70s or 80s, perhaps, and the shock can be detrimental to the lives of the original parents. The Senate has put in a provision saying the parents can file a document at any time barring access to the records. The Senate could send the bill to the House later this week.