There are few things that I do in my practice that make me feel better than helping a family become whole through an adoption. Adoption though has a lot of long term consequences. What happens later in life when an adoptee has health issues that they are trying to understand? How do they know what their birth family had or didn’t have.
Online services like www.ancestory.com have made getting DNA testing easy and affordable for the average person. But what if your relatives aren’t in a database that is checked?
So how does an adoptee learn who their natural parents are? Recently, Missouri has made it easier on people that were adopted here. In 2016 the Missouri Adoptee Rights Act became law. Now, after January 1, 2018, all Missouri Adoptee’s can request a non-certified copy of their original birth certificate. This now gives Adoptees an avenue to begin to seek answers that were not available to them previously.
The necessary form can be found https://health.mo.gov/data/vitalrecords/adopteerightsact.php.
If you have any questions or would like an assistance on an adoption or adoption records issues feel free to contact us.
