It is adoptees’ birthright to know their identity

The proposed Adoption Bill will prolong the maltreatment of the 50,000 adopted people in Ireland. 

Successive Irish governments have failed to acknowledge that Irish-born adoptees are as entitled to know their identity as people born to married parents. This is discrimination on grounds of family status. The 1952 Adoption Act does not forbid adoptees from having their own birth certificates, it merely precludes them from seeing the register that links original names to adopted ones. That section can be repealed.

Furthermore, the intention in the proposed bill to have adopted people sign a statutory undertaking to desist from contacting their parents (where parents do not want contact) perpetuates discrimination. It accords a compromised right. By not acknowledging the difference between the right to know one’s identity and the right to privacy of the original parent, successive Irish governments have failed.