Rudy Owens holds a copy of his memoir on the U.S. adoption experience.
I gave my first book reading on my recently released memoir on the U.S. adoption experience and the larger issue of adoptee rights last night (Sept. 25), at the Tigard Public Library. There was a good turnout, and the audience was fully engaged in the topic and the information I shared. My talk covers many of the larger themes in my memoir and study of the American adoption system.
One of the attendees was a respected state lawmaker who I admire, and I appreciate that she took time from a busy schedule to learn more. I had some friends attend as well, which is always welcome. At events like these, you never know who you may meet or why they care about this issue.
After the presentation, one attendee told me a story about a now-deceased loved one who was adopted and who was unable to get their family and medical history. This was critical information because the adoptee had a genetically transmittable illness. That illness was also passed to that person’s kids, who then had to use other means to try and find their family past when they became adults.
This is a very common story, and I have heard variations of this story from many adoptees and loved ones of adoptees, who describe the frustration of having potentially critical medical information withheld from the one they love just because they are adopted.
Harm occurs to adoptees’ families as well as adoptees
This is one of many travesties of our adoption system and the discriminatory state laws that have potentially life-saving information withheld from adoptees and, equally, their loved ones who may be related as offspring. Tens of millions of American likely have medical conditions with genetic origins. The National Institutes for Health reports there are more than 6,000 genetic and rare diseases. These afflict more than 25 million Americans, and about 30 percent of early deaths can be linked to genetic causes.
Book reading at the Tigard Library, Sept. 25, 2018
Many in this country overlook that spouses of adult adoptees and children of adult adoptees are also impacted by the laws that deny basic rights and medical and family history to millions.
This simply must end, and it is a scandal of our public health system and medical system that no major medical group is an ally of adoptee rights groups or is advocating with adoptee rights advocates to restore rights to records for adoptees. I highlight this decades-long failure of our medical, public health, and political system in my book in Chapter Eight. You can order the book online to learn more.
I look forward to many more readings and more conversations with people who care about the much larger story that impacts countless families in the United States, Canada, and other countries that promoted adoption and still don’t give adoptees rights to their past or even their own family medical history.