The Society of Irish Adopted People 47 Made Up Street Dublin 3 01 886 8591 info@siap.ie January 2015

The Society of Irish Adopted People

Submission to Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children Regarding The Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014

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Table of Contents

Introduction Page 3 The Current Situation in Ireland Page 4 The Debate Surrounding the Opening of Adoption Records Page 6 The Need for Change Page 7 Our Recommendations Page 8 Conclusion Page 10

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Introduction

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee…

The Society of Irish Adopted People (SIAP) welcomes the opportunity to contribute

its views on the potential passing of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill

(2014). If the proposed bill is realized it will reverse 60 years of adoption practice,

which sealed original birth records when a child was adopted. This is something we

unequivocally welcome. SIAP also welcomes the consultation process currently

taking place in regard to this bill. We believe that, due to the serious impact this bill

will have on the lives of Irish people, it needs to transcend the mistakes of previous

adoption legislation and consultation is the best way to ensure that becomes the case.

SIAP is a non-governmental organization that aims to represent people adopted in

Ireland and Irish born adopted people living abroad. We campaign to ensure that the

Irish Government preserves the rights of the adopted child and Irelands 50,000 plus

adult adoptee’s. As well as our legislative campaigning, we publish research into

adoption in Ireland, we provided advocacy services and we offer tracing advice and

information to adopted people.

Our mandate is centered around the belief that adopted people should share the same

human and civil rights as the rest of the population, something we have sadly yet to

see fulfilled. Adopted people have the right to know if they have a genetic

predisposition to serious illness, they have the right to know where they come from

and, in light of recent reports into Ireland Magdalene Laundry past, they have the

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right to know if they were placed for adoption willingly. For Irish adopted people to

share equal rights with the rest of the population we call for the following legislative

changes to be made:

• Adopted people should be given access to their birth certificates

• Adopted people should be given access to their adoption Files

• The introduction of statutory based information and tracing services

• Safeguarding and centralization of all adoption files

• Inquiry into illegal adoptions

• Inquiry into vaccine trials

• Inquiry into the treatment of women in Mother and Baby Homes

We believe that the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill (2014) offers an

opportunity for many of these rights to be finally realised and for that reason we fully

endorse it, on the proviso, it is given the backing and resources it deserves.

The Current Situation in Ireland

The first moves towards granting a right to information materialized in 2005 when An

Bord Uchtála (The Adoption Board), the national government agency for adoption,

established the National Adoption Contact Preference Register (NACP). The purpose

of the Register is to facilitate contact between adopted people and their birth families.

Adoptees and birth relatives are asked to register with the NACP and are asked what

would be their preference for further contact. Participation is voluntary. The available

options are as follows:

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1. Willing to meet.

2. Willing to exchange letters/information or to make contact via

telephone/email.

3. No contact at the moment but willing to share medical information.

4. No contact at the moment but willing to share personal information.

5. No contact at the moment.

The last published figures into how many people have registered with the NACP

show that by the end of 2013 there were approximately 7,500 adopted people and

3,400 birth relatives registered. This has resulted in 670 matches to date1. This shows

that 92 percent of the adopted people who registered in the hope of contact have been

unsuccessful.

The National Adoption Contact Preference Register has come under heavy criticism.

The official number of children adopted in Ireland since 1953 is given as 50,000. That

means that 100,000 Irish people had a child placed for adoption. Only 3,400 of these

have registered, even just to say they wish no further contact. Due to the current

situation where adoption records are not held centrally, many women who claim they

had children adopted against their will, find the idea of going back to the agencies

who facilitated the adoption abhorrent. Many of these agencies report a three-year

waiting list, to initiate a trace2. The agencies argue they are woefully under

resourced, with some ceasing to offer a tracing service, for this reason 3. Such

registers have been tried in other jurisdictions however many have been deemed

                                                                                                               1 The Adoption Authority of Ireland 2014, 'Annual Report 2013'. 2    http://www.adoptionrightsalliance.com/complaints.htm  3  http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/adoption-agency-to-withdraw-tracing-service-236172.html  

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failures, leading them to be abandoned4

The Debate Surrounding the Opening of Adoption Records

The right to information was introduced in Northern Ireland 27 years ago, England

and Wales nearly 40 years ago and in Scotland over 80 years ago. Contemporary

reports prior to the introduction of the policy in these countries portray a debate

strikingly similar to the current one in Ireland. The primary argument against giving

people access to their adoption records then, is the same argument that is being used

in Ireland today. That being, that to introduce the right to information reneges on past

promises, given to birth parents, of privacy. Proponents of this argument, then as now,

argue that families would be destroyed; women would wait in constant fear for a

knock at the door that would reveal a past that they did not want exposed.

This is indeed a powerful argument. SIAP does not want any family to experience this

sceanario and we believe no family has to. Much evidence shows that the vast

majority of adopted people have no desire to make contact, especialy against the will

of the birth relativies5. The evidence suggests that adopted people are very sensitive

about not wanting to upset, disrupt or impinge on the lives of birth relatives. It also

shows that the vast majority of adopted people in those countries have no interest or

inclination in carrying out a search.

                                                                                                               4    Carp, EW 2008, 'Does Opening Adoption Records Have an Adverse Social Impact: Some Lessons From the US, Great Britain and Australia, 1953-2007', Adoption Quarterly , vol 10, no. 3-4, pp. 29-52.    5  Triseliotis, J 1984, 'Obtaing Birth Certificates ', in P Bean (ed.), Adoption , Tavistock, London.    

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Similarities on the opposing side of the debate also can be struck. Arguments for the

opening of records arguments have typically taken two main strands internationally.

The first uses a rights based approach as to why adopted people should be allowed

access to information. Proponent’s claim the denial of origin information is against

adopted people’s human rights; they are denied information others take for granted.

The second argument claims denying people origin information can cause

psychological damage. They point to research that supports this claim, research that

finds adopted people's sense of identity can be damaged, willfully, by denying them

information as to who they are6. The current Irish debate can be seen as a mixture of

the two.

The Need for Change

At the moment many people take to social media to look for their origins or for

information on adoptee’s. Private detective company’s offer to trace your roots for a

hefty fee. Large numbers of people attempt to carry out their own searches using

some basic information they might have. We believe it is cruel to force people into

these situations. The possibility of wrong information being given to someone is very

real and could prove devesating. There is evidence that thousands of babies were

adopted, both before the introduction of adoption legislation in 1953 and after, in

circumstances that can only be discribed as illegal7. None of the 2000 so called

Banished Babies who were secretly trafficed to america show up on offical adoption

                                                                                                               6  Carp, EW 2008, 'Does Opening Adoption Records Have an Adverse Social Impact: Some Lessons From the US, Great Britain and Australia, 1953-2007', Adoption Quarterly , vol 10, no. 3-4, pp. 29-52.    7  Milotte, M 1997, Banished Babies , New Island Books, Dublin.    

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records. There are historical reports of district nurses driving around Irish towns, with

a car full of new born babies, offering them to familes8. When the stigma of

illegitimacy hung so thick in Irish society, adoption and secrecy were synominous.

We as a modern society should do our best to help the people who were adopted in

such circumstances. They had no agency in the adoption process, they did not know

they were being born in a shameful way and they did nothing wrong. For the last 60

years we have told them they have no right to question this, they should be grateful

and they should not upset things by asking awkard questions. Many adopted people

just want information to fill a gap in their being. Many argue they have a deep

psychological need to answer questions like: Where was I born? Is there any illness

that runs in my family? What ethnicity am I? Will I go bald in my thirties? Do I have

any brothers or sisters that look like me? Am I genetically deposed to cancer? Did I

have a different name before? How long was I in an orpanage? Why do I have more

imunization scars than other people? Was I tested on? Why was I put up for adoption?

Is there something wrong with me? All of these questions, and many more, could be

answered for people without contact, without a knock on the door.

Our Recommendations

The Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill (2014) should be passed into

legislation and Adopted people should be given access to their birth certificates

and adoption files.

                                                                                                               8  Darling, V 2005, 'Social Work in Adoption: Vignette', in N,SC Kearney (ed.), Social Work in Ireland: historical perspectives , Institute of Public Administration , Dublin  

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“It is horrific to deny adopted people access to their information. The State and

institutions that were responsible for the adoption of Irish people have a

responsibility to grant those people the very reasonable request for basic

information”.

SIAP agrees wholeheartedly with the above statement made by President Michael D.

Higgins early last year9. We believe that Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill

(2014) has the possibility of finally granting adopted people the same rights as the rest

of the population and fill a void in people’s lives that has harmed them and their

ability to lead a normal life. It is time for Ireland to catch up with the rest of the world

and remove secrecy from adoption practice. Adoption has been a very positive

experience for a vast number of Irish adopted people. They grew up in wonderful

loving homes. Most have no interest to trace their birth families. It is time to bring

Adoption out of the shadows. However, until those who wish to gather information on

where they came from are denied, adoption shall remain a whispered word, something

to be ashamed of and will continue to cause unnecessary pain.

The introduction of statutory based information and tracing services and the

safeguarding and centralization of all adoption files

Within the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill (2014) there is a call that the

current government agency dealing with adoption, The Adoption Authority of Ireland

                                                                                                               9  Fátharta, CÓ 2014, Denying adoption records ‘horrific’, viewed 02 January 2015, http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/denying-adoption-records-horrific-259130.html  

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(AAI) should take control of adoption records from all the individual adoption

agencies in Ireland. The AAI will then be tasked with providing information and

tracing services, post implementation, on a statutory basis. Again we welcome this

decision but only on the proviso that the AAI is given the proper resources needed to

carry out such an important task. Department of Children and Youth Affairs budget

reports show what in 2014 the AAI was allocated a budget of only €3 million. When

compared to the €7 million the state gave the Abbey Theatre in 2013 or the €8 million

given to the National Gallery in 2012, we believe the welfare of Irelands adopted

people needs to be held in more regard going forward10. We want to see an end to

adopted people being put on three-year waiting lists and we trust that the Adoption

(Information and Tracing) Bill (2014) will usher in that change.

Inquiry into illegal adoption practices, vaccine trials and the treatment of women

in Mother and Baby Homes

SIAP welcomes the recent announcement of the setting up of an inquiry into the

treatment of women in Mother and Baby homes. We ask that women who were told to

keep quite will be finally be listened to. We hope that the inquiry can finally establish

to what extent illegal adoption practices were prevalent. We demand that the truth

about vaccine trials and why so many babies died in such homes comes out. Adopted

people have suffered intolerable anguish at the revelations they were used as guinea

pigs. We wonder if we have siblings or friends we cannot remember buried in the

mass graves discovered. We wonder why we have suffered from poor health and

immune system problems all our lives and we wonder why we have not yet been told

                                                                                                               10  Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (2014). Comprehensive Expenditure Report 2012-14.  

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the truth. We deserve better. The establishment of this inquiry goes some way to

rectify those wrongs.

Conclusion

The Society of Irish Adopted People would like to thank the Oireachtas Joint

Committee on Health and Children for allowing us to make this submission. We

welcome the fact that concerned groups such as ourselves, groups representing birth

families and adoptive parents, have been given a forum to discuss the possible change

in adoption legislation. We, as a collective, will be the people most affected by the

upcoming change. Consultation allows us to be part of the legislative process, which

is important. Adoption, to us in this triangle, is much more than mere policy and

practice. It is how our families were formed, how our children were cared for and who

we are today. We remind the Government that we have been promised the proposed

changes many times before, by many different ministers. We trust that this will be the

end of the lip service that dominated discussion in the past. The time is upon us to put

an end to secrecy; it has no longer a place in Irish Society. We urge the Committee on

Health and Children to put forward the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill

(2014) unchallenged and to finally let in the light to adoption in Ireland.