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21st July 2021
02:31pm BST
The Adoptee Voices Report outlines the findings of a survey that examined the effects of closed adoption on adoptees and their families.
It also sets out the results of two smaller qualitative surveys that look at the use of records and DNA testing in the process of family tracing; and adoptees’ opinions and views on the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes.
Commenting on the launch of the report, Maree Ryan O’Brien, founder of Aitheantas and co-author of the report, said:
"The ‘#RepealtheSeal Adoptee Voices Report’ aims to highlight the many challenges facing adoptees in everyday life, and how adoptees’ inability to access files and information has a huge impact on their wellbeing – both physically and mentally. We have established through the European Parliament Research Service that Ireland has the most restrictive system in the European Union when it comes to accessing information on adoptees’ personal health, history and heritage. Participants in the surveys frequently referred to how the denial of these rights affected them. Due to the inaction of successive governments, this loss of identity is now intergenerational, affecting not just adoptees but their children and grandchildren."
When asked about their experience of seeking information about their adoption, participants in the survey outlined a number of obstacles when dealing with the relevant agencies.
Common experiences included frustration at the way in which state agencies interacted with adoptees, with participants referring to the experience as “awful”, “frustrating” and “very upsetting”.
The survey also found that 63.2 per cent of respondents said they used both DNA platforms and records and information in their tracing process to try and find their biological family.
Having several family members and close friends who were adopted I've seen this frustration first hand.
Even aside from wanting to know or even meet their biological families many of them are left in the unknown when it comes to hereditary family conditions and ailments.
Access to family medical records is incredibly important and something everyone should have access to but for many Irish adoptees that just isn't the case.
The report outlines a number of recommendations on the steps that need to be taken to improve the situation for adoptees, and ensure they have access to the required services. Some of the recommendations include the following:
-A new agency to replace the Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla must be formed, to improve interactions with adult adoptees and allow for cross-referencing of files to identify illegal adoptions and sibling relationships.
-A full investigation into all homes, agencies and institutions involved in historic, domestic adoption, to include practices within the Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla, the Child and Family Agency should be launched.
-Evolving and internationally innovative practices should be used to enable stakeholders to participate in the response to institutional abuses.
-Adoptees agree that the history of forced and coerced adoption within the wider societal context should be taught at both secondary school and third level education.
-Comprehensive health screening programmes for adoptees should be considered, as well as earlier entry to existing screening programmes for adoptees and their children, given their lack of knowledge on their genetic medical history.
The full report is available to read online now at: www.adopteevoices.ie .
