Please sign the petition
NEW!! - Vital Records The Debate on Adoptee
Access S.C.A.R. - South Carolina
Adoption Reform
| Fundamental right to know:
Judge Wade S. Weatherford, Jr., Seventh Judicial Circuit Court, SC,
said in a ruling on an adoptee’s petition to gain access to adoption
records: "Mankind is possessed of no greater urge than to try to
understand the age-old question: ’Who am I?’ ’Why am I?’... Those
emotions and anxieties that generate our thirst to know the past are
not superficial and whimsical. They are real and they are ’good cause’
under the law of man and God." |
It is the civil and human right of ALL ADOPTED ADULTS to have access to their original birth record.
Adoption Records have been closed since 1963 in South
Carolina.
The state only has records of adoptions
that went thru the Department of Social Services.
What does this mean to adoptees?
How does an adoptee get their current medical information? What if the adoption was not done by DSS.
Department of Social Services of S C
will only reunite the adoptee and birth parent
are registered with the state. Other Agencies have their own
registries and both parties have to register an affidavit of consent at
the discretion of the chief executive officer of the agency. What if
the other party is deceased? How do we get current medical?
When an agency or attorney closes their
business, there is not a statute that the files be retained or turned over
to the state or how long the file has to be kept by the attorney or agency
as the state only keeps records for the adoptions they handle.
Current Genetic and
Medical information is impossible to obtain without contacting the birth
family.
Adoptees are not entitled to the same civil rights as other citizens that
know their heritage and medical background. The need for medical
information is imperative for adoptees and their children.
Adoptees work, vote, fight for our country and pay taxes. The adult
adoptee is not a child
It is important that a distinction is made that we are not considered
"Children/minors/or an adopted child" under the law.
It is the civil and human right of ALL ADOPTED ADULTS to have access to their original birth record.
Do you have time to get signatures on a petition?
Would your speak with your Senator and Representative regarding the needs
of adoptees to have access to their birth information.
The release of the original birth certificate will make
equal access to all adoptees.
There will also be the issue of privacy to the birth
mother that will arise, so a contact preference may be necessary -
such as the law that passed in Oregon.
Our goal is to educate the lawmakers the needs adoptees
age 21 or over access to their original birth certificate and to open the
original birth certificate to the adoptee.
Please check back often as updates will be posted.
If you are interested in getting involved -
now is the time!!!!!!!!! Please
email
us.
States with Open Records:
