Orphans are being treated like criminals
If the government has its way the latest offence to be added to this list of crimes will be that of seeking out your natural mother. At least if you are an adopted person, that will be the case.
This frightful proposal is contained in the Adoption Information, Post-adoption Contact and Associated Issues Bill published recently.
It deals with the setting up of a national contact veto register, which is described as "an administrative mechanism for protecting the privacy of adopted persons and birth parents."
In reality it is nothing more than continuing legal enforcement of the secrecy surrounding adoption which has caused so much pain to so many parents and their children.
If as an adopted person, having been informed that your natural mother was on the contact veto register, you were to attempt even to write her a letter you would be regarded as having committed a criminal offence. This also applies to any natural mother attempting to contact her offspring. Such criminalisation is nothing new in Ireland.
Brian Lenihan, the junior minister responsible for the bill, has claimed that natural mothers had been guaranteed "confidentiality," but nowhere is this mentioned in the Adoption Act 1952. Countless natural mothers confirm this. Instead of confidentiality there was the signing of blank forms, forced signatures, coercion.
It is a perverse, willful misunderstanding on the part of the government now to permit the criminalisation of adopted people who seek contact with their natural mothers. It is also most strange because all birth certificates which contain the natural mother's name are publicly available for inspection.
There are other more humane ways of assisting those who fear contact from each other such as a contact preference register, whereby people would be informed of the unwillingness of the other party to have contact.
With the care and tact of counsellors the hurt and pain could be reduced for all parties. The flawed legislation proposed by the government will create two categories of adopted people separated only by their date of birth.
Those born after the enactment of the legislation will automatically be able to get their birth certificates upon reaching the age of 18. All other adopted people will have no such right.
The 42,000 adopted people in Ireland will have lesser rights and will be made into second-class citizens.
We must prevent the government from passing this flawed indeed fascist legislation. You can write to Brian Lenihan, Minister of State, Dept of Health and Children at Hawkins House, Hawkins Street, Dublin 2
Alan O'Flynn,
199, Minard Road,
Hither Green,
London SE6 1NH
