Only Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island offer unrestricted access to an American-born adoptees birth certificate.

In a misguided attempt to protect children and biological and adoptive parents from the stigma of illegitimacy and a culture of shame, state adoption records were sealed and adopted children were given new birth certificates with the names of the adoptive parents. Sealed records rob the adoptee of knowledge of their biological and cultural heritage and understanding of their authentic identity.

When adoption agencies close or merge, records generally go to a state depository. 

Today, children’s rights and individual rights are important in making legal decisions. In the mid-20th century children had no voice.

There are a few federal adoption laws currently being considered, including the Equal Citizenship for Children Act to guarantee citizenship for internationally adopted children, rights such as access to birth records are decided by state governments.

They are loss, rejection, guilt, shame, grief, identity, intimacy and control. 

The struggle with identity, the lack of a sense of belonging, ongoing feelings of grief and loss, and behavioral problems can follow an adoptee through life. Some experts believe that adoptees may experience C-PTSD or cumulative trauma.

One in every 25 U.S. families have adopted a child. Half of these families have both adopted and biological children.

This includes private placements, adoption through foster care, and stepparent adoptions.

Open adoptions allow the sharing of information between birth and adoptive parents. In addition, about two-thirds of these adoptions include post-adoption contact between the child and the family of origin.

The numbers of children being adopted from foster care are decreasing, while the number in care eligible for adoption has remained stable.

With 90 percent of current adoptions being open in some form, the focus has shifted to adult children searching for the identity of their sperm-donor fathers. Their issues of needing to fill the black hole of not knowing is the same as for adoptees.