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EXPOSING ADOPTION MYTHS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT ORIGINS IN VICTORIA
Author(s) -
McPhee Gerard,
Webster Marilyn
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.1993.tb00922.x
Subject(s) - identity (music) , natural (archaeology) , wish , project commissioning , publishing , sociology , psychology , internet privacy , social psychology , public relations , political science , law , computer science , history , physics , archaeology , anthropology , acoustics
Victoria was the first State to allow adopted persons unqualified access to their original identity and to provide natural parents and others with conditional access to identifying information. This article examines findings from 1985 to 1988 to examine four assumptions. These are that: few adoptees would want to know about or meet their natural parents and so few would register with the Adoption Information Service; few adoptees would welcome an approach from or on behalf of their natural parents and most would reject such an approach; few relinquishing parents would wish to meet or know about their relinquished child and consequently most would reject an approach by or on behalf of their child; and adoptive parents would not wish to acknowledge the adoptive status of their children by providing information to the natural parent facilitating a meeting between the natural parent and the child. The data suggest that the above assumptions do not reflect the experience or behaviour of adopted persons, natural parents or adoptive parents.