Dear Editor:
The recent article about trying to find younger siblings touched me deeply. As an adoptee and an adoptive mother, I have been active in adoption reform for almost 30 years. Raising my daughters in very open adoptions was the best thing I did for them. They had easy and frequent access to birth family while growing up and pretty much think of this concept as a big “ho hum.” Losses are staggering for adoptees in the closed system which was originally done to protect children from the stigma of being “illegitimate.” Records were not sealed in the 1940’s to protect kids from their birth families.
We are a nation which values “family” closeness. Adoptees deserve to know and embrace their genetic families. It’s time we humanize this process and make changes as so many other countries have done in recent years.
Ellen Roseman
Cooperative Adoption Consulting
San Anselmo, CA