Adoptee Testimony on Bill 7

Grace Hilliard's personal testimony at the Columbus Statehouse, April 30, 2008

In the state of Ohio, when a child is adopted, their birth certificate is permanently altered. Legally, it is acceptable to lie, to forge a medical document. Why is this so? Because the law, a supposed means of affirming truth and justice has directed it so for over forty years.

What does this look like on paper? It means the parental names, information and age are fraudulent. To a bystander this may not appear to have deep consequences for a baby. I assure you there are. For an older child, for me who’d accumulated ten years of history prior to being adopted, this piece of paper resonated as insulting and absurd. In this situation and others where the child knows very well the identity of biological parents and siblings the violation feels much more preposterous.

What are the results of this horribly constructed band-aid of a lie? For starters, if siblings are separated, they are no longer related. A victim of such a circumstance cannot list their brother or sister as next of kin. Health records also become very difficult or impossible to attain if the biological parents are allowed to remain anonymous. Wrongfully, the government has legalized lying to people under the justification of privacy protection.

When a child is adopted their name is changed permanently to the name of the adoptive parents. In many cases, when the situation goes awry, the adoptee can never escape identification with the adoptive parents.

Thus far in Ohio, a name change offers no relief of this haunting reminder. In Ohio, a personal name change holds less credibility than a government falsification on a medical document.

Let’s go back to the issue of privacy. When a person engages in procreation, they should be held accountable for the ramifications. Through a person’s irresponsibility, they have already forfeited a ‘right’ to privacy. It is in no way the government’s responsibility to enable a lie which rewards the irresponsible procreation, the neglect or the abuse of children by denying adoptees the right to information about their identity as a human being.

Furthermore, the government should not be allowing adoptive parents, as wonderful as they are the option of lying to their children, concerning their origination, simply because the adoptive parents may feel threatened or insecure about their identity as a parent.

Go back with me if you will, to when you were ten years old. You’re with your brothers and sisters, maybe even an only child. Picture you’re with your family. You know who your parents are. It has become abundantly clear that your parents are incapable of raising you.

Everyone is gathered in your life, your brothers, sisters, extended family, parents and foster parents. They have all come together to see you, one last time, on this tragically beautiful spring day to say good-bye. You hug your baby brother good-bye, not fully comprehending what fourteen years without him will mean. You’ve not even experienced fourteen years of life. No, you’re not dying although maybe inside you feel this to be the case.

Fast forward with me to the bang of the gavel in the courtroom, to the finalization of the erasing of history. Legally, you could grow up and marry your brother. The one affirmation of your identity, this piece of paper, your birth certificate is a lie.

Grace Hilliard

Testimony on Bill 7 at Columbus Statehouse

Although Gabe was able to share his insights at the recent OACCA advocacy event (pictured here), he was unable to attend the Columbus Statehouse hearing. Therefore his written testimony was shared by his sister, Grace Hilliard:

I apologize for my inability to attend this hearing. However I hope you will take my written testimony into account as you are finalizing your decisions.

As an adoptee, I would like to express my grave disappointment in this committee for taking out the line that would give adoptees their right to their birth certificate. I have heard much in regards to “parental rights.” However, it is vitally important not to overlook the fact children have the right to their personal information as well.

A birth certificate is an adoptee’s personal document to affirm their identity. Distorting factual information in favor of the parents makes children of abuse and abandonment not only victims of our parents, but victims of state bureaucracy as well.

I have met several children who were separated from their siblings, and were consequently adopted by separate families. I am one of those children.

Therefore, I am writing to ask each of you to think long and hard about the idea of waking up one day and recognizing that, according to the Department of Vital Statistics, your sister is no longer your sister or your parents have magically changed in the course of a day.

Doctoring birth certificates causes adoptees to lose their history, self-esteem, and their right to identify with their biological family. In England an incident occurred with a twin brother marrying his twin sister, both were adopted by separate homes and their “doctored” birth certificates meant that, on paper, they were not related to one another.

Adoption does not nullify the history that led to the present. Adoption should not erase the truth of our history and where we come from. For some of us, we can still remember the history of our “good-bye visits" with our siblings. For others, we remember the abuse we encountered.

To this extent, I am truly concerned when a government attempts to intentionally distort history. On a macro level, what if Germany erased the documents from Auschwitz? Currently on the micro-level, this government has attempted to distort the seven years of abuse and heartache, four of which were spent in foster care.

I believe firmly in truth, and the republican values of personal responsibility. Parents are responsible for their child, and an adoption should not void the truth behind that responsibility. Does the truth mean nothing to this committee? Should children be corrupted by the idea that parents can escape accountability because their privacy rights exceed their own responsibility for their children?

Let us keep in mind that the State has already interfered with the concept of parental privacy when they remove children from their biological homes. This asserts that the State believes responsibility outweighs privacy.

What happens if the adoption fails? How do grown citizens who were adopted obtain their medical information from the time that they were in foster care?

It is wrongful for the government to fraudulently change private medical information that connects families, or to profit from adoptive parents paying for “doctored” birth certificates. If you support the idea of a government interfering and changing true documents, then you are in support of a government that deceives the people.

I find it a grave threat to our democracy, when the government distorts factual historical information. I reject the notion of changing history in order to protect the “rights” of parents who have abused and neglected their children. Clearly, the child is the only one who loses and it is a sad state of affairs when the State continues to exploit the rights of children who have already experienced abuse or abandonment.

There is no suburban solution of pretending like everything is all right, and creating lies to cover up the harsh truth. I want to be able to say my family is my family and know that the state recognizes that what I am saying is true.

I hope that each one of you will consider my words and recognize that children have a right to their history, and that the State has no business altering factual information that is a birthright of that child.

I am a 19 year old citizen who is a contracted Army Cadet who will commission and serve this nation in three years. Just as I have the right to fight for protecting this great nation, I believe I have a right to my own information and my own documented history.

Gabriel I. Koshinsky
Capital College Republicans, Chairman
Capital College Conservatives, President
Ohio Youth Advisory Board member
Foster Care Alumni of America member
PCSAO Peer Mentoring Co-Manager