Groups call for urgency on adoption rights legislation

The Government has offered no concrete timeframe for a new law to allow adopted people to access their birth information — almost a year after a bill was introduced last summer.

Adopted people currently have no legal right to their birth certificate or the medical history.

Legislation has been seen as a priority by every Government since 1997, but all have cited the 1998 Supreme Court ruling as a stumbling block. This found the natural mother’s constitutional right to privacy had to be balanced against the child’s constitutional right to identity.