Vol. 31, No. 6, 3. Blood Ties: Post Adoption Reunions in Wyoming.

• Author: Author: Hon. Peter G. Arnold and Anne Reiniger

Wyoming Bar Journal

2008.

Vol. 31, No. 6, 3.

Blood Ties: Post Adoption Reunions in Wyoming

Wyoming Bar Journal Issue: December, 2008 Author: Hon. Peter G. Arnold and Anne Reiniger Blood Ties: Post Adoption Reunions in Wyoming

Betty had a baby when she was in high school and gave birth in Wyoming. She surrendered the little girl for adoption, returned home to Iowa and went on with her life. She married and had a son, but never forgot the little girl. What had become of her? Did she do the right thing? Thirty-five years later Betty decided to search for her daughter and answer those nagging questions. She filed a petition in Wyoming District Court and the judge appointed a Confidential Intermediary (CI). The CI secured the original birth record and found her daughter, now married and living in Nebraska. She agreed to a reunion with her birth mother and the CI gave them contact information. Two months later Betty wrote to the CI and told her they talked on the phone a few times and then her daughter and husband visited her. "She's a wonderful young woman and had a great childhood with loving parents - for which I'll be forever grateful."One of the most controversial and emotional issues in the modern adoption world is the opening of adoption records for the purpose of search and reunion by adoptees and their birth families. Most records may be unsealed only upon a judicial finding of good cause, but the trend is towards disclosure with mutual consent of parties.

History

The preference for treatment of adoptions as confidential proceedings and the disclosure of adoption records is a relatively recent practice. Until the 19th Century, formal adoption of children rarely existed. Court records and birth certificates were rare or non-existent and the best interests of a child was not a consideration. The first modern adoption law in the U.S. was enacted in Massachusetts in 1851. It emphasized the "child's welfare" and established the principle of judicial supervision. The first adoption statute in Wyoming was enacted in 1876, spurred by the influx of children brought west on the orphan trains from New York and other Eastern cities; their Wyoming parents wanted to formalize their relationship with the children placed with them. There was openness and disclosure for those involved in adoptions until near the end of WWII. When the...