Family Medical History Day" - Not for Adoptees

US Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S. declared Thanksgiving day 'Family Medical History Day' but thousands of adult adoptees cannot participate.

(PRWEB) November 26, 2004 -- Being a member of the 6 million+ adoptees within the United States, and one of thousands living in North Carolina, I was among those who coud not participate in the Family Medical Hostory Day.

Sadly, this would have been an important chance in gathering information which may have offered not only the opportunity to improve quality of life and prolong and even save lives was not available to adoptees in 45 US States of which North Carolina is one. This reason is due to lack of access to identifying information concerning genetic heritage. This information allowing adult adoptees to request valuable medical history is sealed by archaic adoption laws and is not available to the thousands of adult adoptees in our state.

Members of the federal government would tell us it is state law which governs adoption law, and members of the adoption triad should address the individual states with this issue (something we are already well aware of). However when asked for medical info, information given at the time of our relinquishment is what is sent, which is very seldom complete, accurate or updated, and thus, virtually worthless.

Any adult adoptee, which has not yet been reunited with members of biological family, cannot be expected to know what diseases or illnesses may occur in a family line of the adoptee in the future. Any adult adoptee should be able to gather this information first hand from those who have experienced illness or disease, or know of it's occurrence within the biological family just as US Citizens who are not adopted was able to do this past Thanksgiving Day.

As a member of the adoption triad and the chairwoman of a State adoption reform organization I know beforehand what the reply from our state governments will be. Especially the States who claim they have revamped their adoption practices to ensure more medical info is available..."We can only provide you with the non-identifying information enclosed in your sealed file. So therefore the adopted are forced to gamble with their health.

Or better yet, are those who have been adopted and were never told they were adopted (of which there are many). These people go through their lives putting down the medical history of their adoptive family.

A game of roulette anyone?

In this day of preventative medicine, an adult adoptee is being denied the opportunity to access life saving family medical info, simply because of being raised by someone other than by those who conceived them.

The US Surgeon Genera designatiing Thanksgiving Day as Family History Day a day in the month of November which is also National Adoption Awareness Month, is a total paradox, because of the way adoption laws were and are currently continuing to be written, they do not encourage gathering of medical info, but actually this is a law within the States which discourages it.

For 6 million+ members of the adoption triad, the simple statement made by our Surgeon General, "Knowing your family medical history can save your life", feels as if we are being handed a death sentence, not lifesaving advice.

The gathering this past Thanksgiving day at tables provided no use in protecting an adoptees health. While they were able to gain some very interesting insight into the genealogy of the adoptive family, there was no medical history the adoptive family could provide which will be of use to them. This was the sad scenario for adult adoptees across our country.

My question is: When is the health of the adopted going to be designated just as important as the health of those who are not adopted?

###