Privacy in Adoptions Loosened
Compromise will use agencies as intermediaries

Martha Quillin, Staff Writer
RALEIGH - A House committee approved a bill Tuesday that would allow adoption agencies to arrange reunions of birth parents and the children they give up for adoption, once those children reach age 21.

"It's a baby step, but it's a step in the right direction," said Joanna Freitag of Apex, who was adopted as an infant and spent months as an adult trying to find the woman who had given birth to her.

The bill is a compromise. Adult adoptees have long sought access to their original birth certificates, with the names of their birth parents and their county of birth. The National Council for Adoption and the N.C. Family Policy Council have argued that birth parents' privacy should be protected and that changing the law could discourage future adoptions.

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