Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 11, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“(11) Where an adopted person wishes to communicate in writing with his or her natural parent or where a natural parent wishes to communicate in writing with the adopted person, the Authority shall make arrangements for the exchange of such communications, provided that in making such arrangements for the specific purpose of this subsection, the Authority shall not release to either the adopted person or the natural parent any information other than that which the writer of the communication has included in the communication.

(12) For the purpose of subsection (11), a communication may include medical information or a request for medical information relating to the adopted person, natural parent or relatives of the natural parent.”.

These amendments are designed to allow letters to be exchanged between the natural parent and the adopted person and to allow medical information to be shared. This would fit into the process where the adoptee on making the initial application for their birth certificate may also provide the Adoption Authority with a letter that they would like to have passed on to their natural mother. The same would also be the case where a natural parent is seeking the adoption certificate of their adopted son or daughter and they may also include a letter at that point, if they wish, and the natural parent may also decide to give over medical information. The purpose of this proposal is that from the natural mother's perspective, if they receive a request for the birth certificate or are told that the birth certificate has been requested by their adopted son or daughter, they might take some comfort in also receiving a letter from their son or daughter indicating their wishes or just setting out why they are looking for this information and having the opportunity to reach out and for the adopted son or daughter to explain where they are coming from. The may write a letter along the following lines:

I appreciate that I was adopted at a time when most children were, that this was probably a difficult time for you. I do not wish to impose myself on your life or to create any further complications but I am looking for this information because my identify is important to me, but I also want to progress the matter in a way that is sensitive to your needs as well.

From my experience of being an adoptee, I was very anxious to say that to my mother to reassure her that I would never want to do anything that would upset her and that I appreciated that even talking about adoption or even considering the circumstances of my birth could be difficult for her. From talking to other adoptees, many of them share the same anxiety and want to reassure their mother that they are looking for this information because it is important to them, but they also want to reassure them that they are not seeking to make their life difficult. They appreciate that there is a possibility that their mother may not have told her spouse yet or that she may have other children she has not told and they only want to progress the issue in a way that is sensitive and would give their mother space to deal with it as well. The opportunity to provide a letter would be helpful in that respect.

These amendments also provide that where the mother has decided that she would prefer not to have contact and not to have her contact details released, she may opt to provide up-to-date medical information and therefore provide additional information on top of what the Adoption Authority has provided. It is implicitly stated that this would be an option and that the Adoption Authority, in communicating with the mother, would advise her that she has the option of contact or no contact, in which case it would not pass on her contact details, but that she also has the option to give it medical information that it can pass on to her son or daughter. These proposals seek to make the process as sensitive and supportive as possible for both parties. It moves forward in the spirit of the Bill, which is to enable people to move forward in a way that suits their own individual needs and sensitives and it facilitates that.