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GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR STATE FORM 13342, INDIANA ADOPTION MEDICAL HISTORY REGISTRY

most people do not realize that when a domestic adoption occurs that a u.s. adopt D then has to birth certificates they have an original birth certificate which all of us in this theatre have and they also have a second birth certificate an amended birth certificate so this evening I want to explain the differences between these two documents and the unique challenges that are faced by many adult adoptees today and then I will explain a proposal that I have to change this very confusing odd and archaic system that exists today so what do we use birth certificates for we use it for identity that tells who you are when you were born and where you were born these birth certificates are used to enroll your child in school if you're getting a Social Security card you better have your birth certificate when you're obtaining a driver's license or passport if you're applying for college financial aid they will request that if you're applying for a marriage license if you want to join the US military and more and more states are requiring them to register to vote for the first time so what is it with these two birth certificates how different are they the original birth certificate is what those of us in this theater have it explains who gave birth to you it was the mother on your birth certificate but it may or may not list the father and that's because birth fathers were not given legal rights until the early 1970s by a US Supreme Court ruling so sometimes the space for father is blank sometimes it will list a what's known as a legal father and this could be someone who has absolutely no biological connection to the infant on the birth certificate the legal father could be someone that the was married to several years ago but now divorced from legal father could be a man in the military who's been overseas for a year who obviously is not biologically related to this child when an adoption occurs a second birth certificate is then issued and this is called an amended birth certificate this certificate reads as if the adoptive parent or parents gave birth to this infant and I want to repeat that those of you in genealogy your heads probably spinning around right now but the amended birth certificate reads as if the adoptive parents gave birth to this infant now at the bottom of all the birth certificates there's a signature for the vital records registrar and it has a date that that birth certificate was issued on original birth certificates that date is usually two or three days after the birth of this child with an amended birth certificate then that can be weeks months or even years later and so that that's causing some issues when you try to establish your identity so when did this get so screwy when did adult adoptees start having trouble proving who they are and getting their identity I believe it all goes back to the u.s. Patriot Act and this was the act that was an octa enacted by Congress right after the terrorist attacks on the East Coast and this was in the year 2001 and the Patriot Act initially was started so that money could not be funneled into terrorism and it's an acronym some government workers spent a lot of time coming up with this one I'm sure so it stands for uniting and strengthening America by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct Terrorism I love that so the basic principle was to stop people from opening back accounts and then funneling the money to terrorists so in order to open a bank account the banking industry set up parameters for establishing an identity through the years that has kind of morphed by state governments into you have to prove your identity for several reasons now and now in 2017 we frequently have to prove that we are who we say we are as I mentioned you have to submit a birth certificate for a passport application well if you're an adoptee applying for a passport for the very first time and sending in your amended birth certificate you have to sign the same statement that every US citizen has to get a passport warning false statements made knowingly and loli willfully in passport applications including affidavits or other documents submitted to support this application are punishable by find and/or imprisonment under US law including the provisions of 18 USC one-zero-zero-one 18 USC 154 - and/or 18 USC 1621 well it's no surprise that often the application that an adult adoptee makes is denied by the US passport office and it has returned because the birth certificate looks odd it looks fraudulent and a lot of that goes back to the date that I mentioned on the bottom of the birth certificate where it says when it was issued so you're thinking well they have to birth certificates why can't they just submit both of them with the passport application well here's the kicker original birth certificates are available to adult adoptees without restriction restrictions in only nine states right now that's Alabama Alaska Colorado Hawaii is our most recent one added Kansas Maine New Hampshire Oregon and Rhode Island and even though you could obtain your original birth certificate if you were born in why this nine states they do not agree on what constitutes an adult adoptee in some states like Kansas it's 18 in some states it's 21 and in some states you have to wait till you're 25 before you can access your original birth certificate so each state has their own rules and regulations for giving this original birth certificate and in Kansas and I like to warn adult adoptees about it because it can be drawn to see you get the original birth certificate and diagonally and bright red across the document it reads void and that is so this document cannot be used for fraudulent purposes some states Missouri for example stamp for genealogical purposes only not to be used for establishing identity so 22 states you will never be able to get your original birth certificate period it is not available to you 19 states now have partial or access with restrictions so what are some of those restrictions and this is where the system appears really bizarre limits may include span of dates not allowed in some states if you were born prior to for example 1941 or born after 1961 yes you can have your original birth certificate but if you are born between 1941 and 1961 sorry you're out of luck another restriction that is commonly used is that you have to prove both birth parents are deceased well this can be difficult if you don't know whose names are on your original birth certificate now another restriction they require therapy from a certified therapist or social worker before we will release your original birth certificate to you the next absurd one is is one of my favorites notarized permission from adoptive parents so if you're 70 years old you need notarized permission from your 90 something year old adoptive parents now if one of those parents says no then you don't get your original birth certificate they both have to notarize that another restriction is to pay a court approved confidential intermediary the going rate right now is between four and five hundred dollars and they will ask your birth parents they will find them hopefully and ask their permission to release the original birth certificate now if the birth mother says yes and the birth father says no you are out four hundred to five hundred dollars and you will not get your original birth certificate another one of my favorite absurd things is if you are a stepparent say you were born and brought up by one of your biological parents who then married another partner and that partner adopted you well some states will let you look at the original birth certificate still can't have it but at least you can look at it so how absurd can these situations be well as you can imagine they can get really weird for example and these are actual examples to two tall blue-eyed blond parents adoptive parents went to kindergarten roundup with their child and this is for those of us that are parents this is a big big deal when you can finally take your child to kindergarten roundup and enroll them for public school so this couple went with their daughter five-year-old daughter and the daughter is beautiful she has big brown eyes and black hair and she has dark skin and so the parents explained to the school that yes this is our adopted daughter and here is her birth certificate and they present the amended birth certificate and the school refuses to enroll this child for school because the signature at the bottom is dated two years after the birth and so they do not believe this is really their child another example is a single male adopts a child and the birth certificate remember reads as if this parent gave birth except there's no woman on the birth certificate so yeah he has no hope again the passport widowed father remarries and remarries a much younger woman so the birth certificate then has changed when she adopts her husband's child and on the amended birth certificate it reads as if she gave birth to this child but she was seven years old at that time so that looks odd a mother was enrolling her child for soccer and this is another instance where you have to show your birth certificate to document the the age group and the adoptive mother was listed as having lived in a certain city and state that she had never been to and the person enrolling this child in soccer was from that particular city and state oh gosh what high school did you go to what part of the city did you live in so she had to admit that she had never been there she had no idea what the town was like I talked to a genealogy group a few years ago a state group and afterwards a man came up he said can I tell you about my situation and I said absolutely he grew up next door to a rather elderly woman and this woman adored this man and had watched him grow up and she didn't have any other family and so she asked if he would be willing to help her with being the executor for her for the estate and she would like to leave the house to him so they went to an attorney and the attorney well why don't you just adopt him so they did the adoption occurred and the vital statistics mailed the man his new birth certificate which showed that the next-door neighbor had given birth to him and it was signed over 40 years after his birth this poor guy has no hope again any government services so what can we do here's my proposal let's eliminate these absurd amended birth certificates I'd like to see them abolished if you can stamp void across an original birth certificate I think you can stamp certificate of adoption across the amended birth certificate we need to quit pretending that the adoptive current parents gave birth to this child it's just absurd and it's causing problems we need to archive the original birth certificate with the amended birth certificate which will now call a certificate of adoption together in the vital records department of each state and when the parent of a minor child needs a birth certificate she or he will contact vital stats and both documents will be sent and we need to have more than nine states we need all 50 states to allow access to an original birth certificate at age 18 and a birth certificate is not just a simple piece of paper a dear friend of mine and a New Jersey adult tada D just had this profound statement that that I love and I want to end the talk with this if birth certificates are not important then why are they called vital records thank you for listening Applause