LAW REVIEW ARTICLE: "THE ONLY AMERICANS LEGALLY PROHIBITED FROM KNOWING WHO THEIR BIRTH PARENTS ARE: A REJECTION OF PRIVACY RIGHTS…"
There’s a new law review article that blasts the argument for “birthparent privacy” rights. Hughes, Susan Whittaker, “The only Americans legally prohibited from knowing who their birth parents are: A rejection of privacy rights as a bar to adult adoptees’ access to original birth and adoption records.” Cleveland State Law Review 53, 3 p. 429-461. Here’s an excerpt: Constitutional privacy has two prongs. As the Supreme Court in Whalen v Roe explained, first, it involves an individual’s freedom from governmental interference with fundamental rights such that the individual is able to make decisions surrounding important matters independently. Secondly, constitutional privacy includes an individiual’s right to be free from government’s gathering and disclosure of his or her personal information. When examined against these two prongs, birth parent privacy assertions lack sufficient weight to be afforded the protection that they have enjoyed. Privacy assertions made under the first prong, for example, do not work because open access statutes will not impede the exercise of fundamental rights and because adoption rights, as statutory creations, do not give rise to privacy protections only afforded to fundamental rights. Privacy assertions made under the second prong fail because open access statues do not violate a birth Continue Reading →