Rudy Owens, Author, MPH, MA
I continue to publish essays about adoption, adoptee-rights, and the history of adoption in the USA and in my birth state Michigan. I published my memoir on my the American adoption experience and my experience as an adoptee in May 2018 and continue to explore issues examined in depth in my work.My essays are arranged chronologically. I welcome your feedback and comments.
- Revealing more dishonesty after the second court-ordered release of my original birth (Jan. 5, 2025)
- Countless adoptees could have slowly ticking health issues and are intentionally robbed of life-saving information (Dec. 29, 2024)
- On Christmas Day 2025 I celebrate the moms and infants separated at my birthplace (Dec. 25, 2024)
- Will legacy media ever dare invite adoptee authors and researchers as guests to discuss adoption? (Nov. 28, 2024)
- After 80 days, Michigan finally releases my original birth certificate (November 10, 2024, with links to four related essays and videos on this topic)
- Some thoughts on ‘adopter ownership’ of adoptee voices and this horrible adoption-promotion month (Nov. 9, 2024)
- In the end, too many adoptees will leave this world alone (Nov. 2, 2024)
- How the memories all come back with the cards and letters (Aug. 1, 2024)
- AI will only harm adoptees and promote the adoption system’s lies and deception (June 1, 2024)
- Death finally takes my birth mother, did you come to gawk at the photo? (April 27, 2024)
- When the sirens call, you must respond (April 20, 2024)
- Why won’t the American Public Health Association even publish a letter supporting adoptees? (April 7, 2024)
- ‘Stateside’ interviews focus on Finland, adoptee rights, and our right to know our origins (March 21, 2024)
- Adoption and spy craft: Thoughts on John le Carré and my life as an adoptee (Jan. 21, 2024)
- Adoptee rights is also a moral issue to ensure equal rights to good health, yet public health and health professionals ignore this intentionally (Jan. 13, 2024)
- News Year’s Day 2024 reflections on adoptee rights and possible reform in Michigan (Jan. 2, 2024)
- A Michigan adoptee Christmas wish for Gov. Whitmer of Michigan (Dec. 25, 2023)
- Update on new legislation to end discrimination against Michigan-born adoptees (Nov. 16, 2023)
- Meeting my kin in Finland and the truth of biological family (Nov. 5, 2023)
- Coming home to my Finnish ancestral villages, in defiance of Michigan’s adoption secrecy laws (October 14, 2023)
- We all have a right to know our origins (Sept. 24, 2023)
- What the United States can learn from Finland’s famous ‘baby boxes’ (Sept. 16, 2023)
- A hunger to know who we are and from where we have come (Aug. 20, 2023)
- The elegance and simplicity of equality in Vermont (July 1, 2023)
- Adoptee rights reform in Michigan, a new development (June 4, 2023)
- Counting adoptions and not counting adoptions: a tale of two countries (May 20, 2023)
- Restoring rights to adoptees in Michigan ultimately is about power, so let’s use it (May 7, 2023)
- Dear Governor Whitmer, signed Michigan-born adoptee (April 30, 2023)
- ‘No friends but the mountains’ (April 23, 2023)
- Kinship and ethnic ancestries matter in our bones (March 12, 2023)
- ‘Picking a target’ in 2023 for adoptee rights advocacy (Jan. 2, 2023)
- My holiday card tradition on Thanksgiving day (Nov. 25, 2022)
- No I will not share pictures to entertain you (Oct. 21, 2022)
- ‘Talking Story’ with Bryan Elliott on his podcast Living in Adoptionland (July 30, 2022)
- The ups and downs of ‘adoptee Twitter’ (April 3, 2022)
- Why adoptee rights advocacy should use a public health lens (Dec. 5, 2021)
- What adoption taught me about bureaucracy (Nov. 11, 2021)
- ‘Can you help me with my search?’ (May 23, 2021)
- My sister will die never knowing her past (Jan. 4, 2020)
- If you aren’t counted, you don’t count (Aug. 17, 2019)
- Whitewashing adoption from the historic record (June 8, 2019)
- An adoptee may never be family in kin networks (May 4, 2019)
- Crittenton General Hospital’s forgotten legacy serving single mothers and promoting adoption In Michigan (March 16, 2019)
- Being disavowed in the official record: the adoptee’s mission inevitable (Oct. 9, 2018)
- Let me give you some advice, bastard: a few lessons about records and the treatment of adult adoptees (Aug. 18, 2018)
- Sharing my story in Michigan (June 15, 2018)
- Adoptee rights advocacy, one communication at a time (May 6, 2018)
- The Detroit Adoptee Manifesto (Nov. 29, 2017)
- ‘The Art of War’: the essential text for any U.S. adoptee (Nov. 3, 2017)
- A guide to Michigan Adoptees seeking court orders for original birth certificates (Oct. 21, 2017)
- FAQs for court order requests In Michigan for original birth certificates (Oct. 21, 2017)
- Numbers of adoptees relinquished: 1944-1975 (June 3, 2017)
- Adoptee rights advocates must critically view any group lacking ‘street cred’ (May 19, 2017)
- Discrimination against adoptees rooted in fears of illegitimacy (January 29, 2017)
- Detroit’s complex legacy in the National Forence Crittenton Mission (September 3, 2016)
- Getting what has always been mine–my original birth certificate (July 29, 2016)
- Dear Michigan, I just want my birth certificate, now! (March 20, 2016)
- How legalized discrimination against adoptees and birth parents took root in post-war America (January 15, 2016)
- Jason Bourne, an adoptee’s search story in disguise (February 26, 2016)
- The Man of Steel, an adult adoptee’s journey of discovery (December 18, 2015)
- The American Philomena story that is my own (February 14, 2015)
You can also read a summary, with key facts and documents I obtained through a FOIA request, showing how I overcame Michigan’s decades-long-efforts to deny me equal treatment by law and give me my original birth records.
(Last updated on January 5 2025.)