Genetic Anonymity Is Over: Why Restoring Equality To Adoptees Is More Critical Than Ever

The consumer DNA market has brought an end to the era of genetic and adoption secrecy. Yet, our laws and adoption practices have not kept pace with this new reality. Adult adopted persons are still unjustly denied their rights to their original birth certificate in 36 states plus the District of Columbia. It is because they are denied their rights in the state where they were born that leads them to doing consumer DNA if they want to act on their basic human right to know who they are and where they come from. And this is precisely why it’s ironic to consider after many years (almost a half-century!) of adoptee equality efforts being stalled in the name of “protecting birth/first mother privacy” that the very passage of such bills actually do protect everyone’s privacy better than the current alternative: remaining at risk of being exposed through consumer DNA.

The myth that restoring rights to adopted persons would somehow violate our privacy as women who lost children to adoption during the closed adoption era, a time in our history when domestic infant adoption practices were carried out with extreme legalized secrecy, reverberates whenever the issue of restoring rights to them comes up. We have spoken up about the unjust nature and long term effects of this legalized secrecy since our inception in 1976. We were not informed there was a dual birth certificate system in place at the time we relinquished and that we would be literally wiped from our children’s history via an amended birth certificate that falsely claimed their adoptive parents gave birth to them. It was upsetting to us to discover this after the fact and even worse to learn that when our children became adults, they still would not be able to access their true, original and factual birth certificate. We believe in telling the truth and that it is a fundamental right to know the truth about who you are and where you come from.

The first and top reason why we need to restore equality to adopted persons is because it’s wrong to have a policy in place that discriminates against them. The second reason is because it actually is the most private option for them and us. In order to create fair and modern policies today, it’s crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of how exactly the consumer DNA industry is eroding the privacy of both adopted persons and parents of adoption loss.

The numbers are truly staggering. The consumer DNA market is a $2.4 billion industry that is projected to be a $10 billion one by 2030 and it has established and accelerated a very public process for adopted persons —  particularly ones from the closed adoption era; Baby Boomers, GenXers, and some older Millennials — and their families of origin to discover each other. Over 26 million people have done a consumer-DNA test and it was predicted in 2019 that by the end of 2023, well over a third of the country will have tested. If adopted people aren’t doing DNA, their adult children are. Genetic anonymity simply does not exist and won’t exist ever again for anyone ever again.

People can expect to find a robust community of people online to help them decipher their DNA results and connect the dots to determine where they and many generations of their relatives fit in on the family tree. It is worth noting that DNA companies invest heavily in their online products often helping users connect directly with each other. They proactively send them emails when there are new interesting conclusions (ie. “You have 85 new relatives this month!”) and they maintain community forums for users to contact each other either to discuss their new relation or to learn more about how to use the database.

On top of that, social media sites like Facebook have community groups specifically to help people like adoptees and parents of adoption loss find their families through DNA. One group is called DNA Detectives and it has almost 200,000 active members who can collectively solve the toughest of cases in mere hours or minutes.

Luckily, the overwhelming majority of adopted persons— 92% to be precise  (and that was in 2019!)— find a half-second cousin or closer when they first test using consumer DNA. With this close of a match, they can expect to identify at the very least their great-great-grandparent(s) even without the help of all the resources waiting in the wings for them.

We can expect less and less privacy from here on out. For example, the 1950 U.S. Federal Census was released in April 2022. The census is one of the most widely used sources to build family trees from DNA results and DNA companies began to index the census quickly after its release. Adoptees who were born at the height of the forced adoption era in the 1960’s and whom were already in DNA databases likely got a huge uptick in information on their family trees as their first parents born in the 1940’s began showing up in public record as young children. In other words, if they haven’t already identified a parent or grandparent, they got a lot closer when the 1950 U.S. Federal Census was released.

So, any adoption agency or government official/entity who is advising a birth/first mother that her identity can be kept anonymous, even if she relinquished decades ago, is seriously misleading her. We must not cling to a reality that no longer exists. Today is always going to be the day when we can protect the most privacy possible for all people in families that have been separated by adoption.

No one should have to use DNA to find their family. It’s degrading and inhumane because it isn’t private. And as mothers of adoption loss, we would much rather hear from the adults we lost to adoption directly instead of an erroneous distant relative we may or may not even know ourselves. But until we restore the rights for adopted persons born in the 36 states plus the District of Columbia where they are denied their original birth certificates, it’s all they have if they want to act on their basic human need to know who they are and where they came from.