ADOPTION REALITY: UK
Adopted children should be able to meet birth parents, says top judge
Report calls for ‘sea change’ to make face-to-face contact with birth families the norm to help all involved with issues such as identity
Adopted children should have face-to-face contact with their birth parents, a major report has recommended.
The report, commissioned by Britain’s most senior family court judge, said the system where face-to-face contact was the exception rather than the rule was outdated.
Its author, Mrs Justice Judd, said there needed to be a “sea change” in the approach to enable children under 18 to regularly see their birth families provided it was safe to do so.
Most adopted children have little or no contact with their birth parents but, under current laws, they have a right to see their birth records and reach out to them. An adoption contact register allows the birth parents to indicate whether they want to be contacted, if it should be limited or none at all.
Until the 1970s, mothers would give up their babies for adoption with no expectation of future contact.
The report said: “The stigma attached to illegitimacy and infertility meant that the decision not to promote contact was considered to be a protective factor for the adopter, the adopted child and the birth family.”
KEEP READING: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/07/adopted-children-should-meet-birth-parents-says-top-judge/
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