Mary Henry (Independent)

We spent a good deal of time earlier talking about the importance of paternity and of a child knowing his or her parents, but section 35 poses a major block to adopted children in trying to find their parents. In these days of much more open adoption, I do not know how in tune that provision is with modern life. I am involved with people whom I would encourage to consider adoption and the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. I know the Minister would have read its report, which deals encouragingly with open adoption. Between that and the block in this section to checking registers, unless one can has a pretty good idea of one's date of birth, one cannot do the types of trawls people were able to do in the past. I am concerned about these two sections.

I do not believe the Minister or her officials are trying to be devious in bringing forward the sections together, it is merely that both seem to make matters difficult for adopted children trying to find their genetic parents. We spent the afternoon discussing how important that could be as between genetic mothers, gestational mothers and so on, and it could be very important especially from a medical point of view. Certainly they are blocked by section 35 and also by this section. Life is made much more difficult for them than under the old registration bills.

I know people of my age who were adopted when nobody went around as a single mother with children. Those people were able to trawl the records of Holles Street, and they may have checked within a month of when they were born in case the registrations were not quite right. That does not seem possible now. I do not believe the Minister is trying to do people down but I am concerned that such people may be blocked at every turn. That is not what we are trying to do here.