Why Adoptees Deserve Their OBC

As an adoptive parent I have always felt that every adoptee has a right to have his/her original birth certificate. It is a basic human right the rest of us take for granted. My children all have theirs. Here is a story out of Britain that illustrates one reason why.


LONDON, England -- A set of British twins who were separated at birth went on to marry each other without realizing they were related, the UK Press Association reported Friday.

The brother and sister, who were adopted by separate parents, were given an annulment after a High Court judge ruled that the marriage had never been valid.

Their identities and details of their relationship have been kept secret, but the Press Association reported that the duo did not find out that they were blood relatives until after they were married.

David Alton, a member of the House of Lords, revealed their situation as a way of highlighting perceived shortcomings in the Human Embryology and Tissues Bill which is now going through Britain's Parliament.

He first heard of the twins' marriage in a conversation with a High Court judge, and initially raised the case in a House of Lords debate on December 10.

Alton said: "(The brother and sister) met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation.

"I suspect that it will be a matter of litigation in the future if we do not make information of this kind available to children who have been donor-conceived. "

Alton is concerned that the new bill would allow the biological identity of one parent to be removed from the birth certificate, PA reported, and that there would be no way for the child to know if they had been donor-conceived.

He told PA on Friday: "The state is colluding in a deception. We are opening the door to more cases like this one. One of the most fundamental things of all is to know who you are. The issue here is about human rights.



I'd like to add also that one of the reasons I oppose donor insemination, beyond the moral issue, is there is almost no way for an adult conceived via artificial insemination ever to learn who their biological father is. Donor egg conceptions are even more of a brave new world we should be avoiding at all costs. I know what it's like to want to be pregnant, I longed for it. But the end, a pregnancy, doesn't justify the means, using another man's sperm or another woman's egg.