Surrender and Subordination: Birth Mothers and Adoption Law Reform
![handle is hein.journals/mjgl20 and id is 41 raw text is: SURRENDER AND SUBORDINATION: BIRTH
MOTHERS AND ADOPTION LAW REFORM
Elizabeth]. Samuels*
For more than thirty years, adoption law reform advocates
have been seeking to restore for adult adoptees the right to access
their original birth certificates, a right that was lost in all but two
states between the late 1930s and 1990. The advocates have faced
strong opposition and have succeeded only in recent years and only in
eight states. Among the most vigorous advocates for access are birth
mothers who surrendered their children during a time it was be-
lieved that adoption would relieve unmarried women of shame and
restore them to a respectable life.
The birth mother advocates say that when they surrendered
their children, their wishes were subordinated and their voices si-
lenced. They say they want to be heard now as they raise their voices
in support of adult adoptees' rights to information in government
records about their birth mothers' original identities. Opponents of
restoring access, in women-protective rhetoric reminiscent of recent
anti-abortion efforts, argue that access would harm birth mothers,
violating their rights and bringing shame anew through unwanted
exposure of out-of-wedlock births. Opponents say they must speak for
birth mothers who cannot come forward to speak for themselves.
Birth mother advocates respond that the impetus historically for clos-
ing records was to protect adoptivefamiliesfom public scrutiny and
from interference by birth parents, rather than to protect birth
mothers from being identified in the future by their children. They
maintain that birth mothers did not choose and were not legally
guaranteed hfelong anonymity. They point out that when laws that
have restored access have been challenged, courts have found neither
statutory guarantees of nor constitutional rights to, anonymity. They
* Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, A.B. Harvard College, J.D.
University of Chicago. The author thanks the women and their children who have
shared with me not only their documents but also their stories, their thoughts, and
their feelings; the superb staff of the University of Baltimore School of Law Library;
my invaluable research assistants, Bridgette Harwood, Tom Jones, and Jessica
Gorsky; and colleagues Jane Murphy, Garrett Epps, and Ann Fessler, for their
helpful comments on drafts of this article. The author has testified about the history
of adult adoptee access to birth records at legislative hearings in Connecticut, Maine,
Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
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Surrender and Subordination: Birth Mothers and Adoption Law Reform
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