September 17th, 2007 is to be a day of reckoning for the millions of adoptees and birth parents and kin in Ontario, Canada whom have no access to the identifying information of their own next of kin. Since 1927, adoption records had been sealed and adoptees and birth parents unable to at a legal age for a child be enabled to view personal information such as the identities of family members, original birth certificates including the names of both birth parents and the child’s name and the most important aspect; a transparency to the access to information for both parents and children involved in the adoption process.
A social stigma which causes this rift of transparent information for both parties disallows the human right to personal information. Society’s stigma of the unwed pregnancy clearly displaces individuals, makes them strangers to their own kin, and segregates individuals in its attempt to create social approval for the individuals involved.
On September 17, 2007, fifty years after this decree made law, finally access to important information for the adopted children and their families will be rightfully returned. Adoptees and birth parents will have access to their own personal history through sealed government documents including original birth certificates, identifying information, legal original birth names and all of the documentation available pertaining to the adoption. It’s a long time coming and although halfway there, and a great victory for the adoption community, there is still a lot more work to be done to eradicate the silence and secrecy of adoption.