Thursday, March 19, 2009

The right to be left alone?

In which of the following situations, if any, is Person A wronged?

  1. A's adoptive parents never tell A he is adopted. A has no suspicions and believes the adoptive parents are his birth parents.

  2. A asks the adoption agency for information about his birth parents. It has records that would reveal the identity and location of A's birth parent(s) but refuses to provide them, at the request of the birth parent(s).

  3. A uses legal or extra-legal means to pierce the secrecy around his closed adoption and, against the wishes of his birth parent(s), makes contact.

  4. A, who gave up a child in a closed adoption, seeks information about her child through the adoption agency. It has records that would reveal the identity and location of A's offspring but refuses to provide them, at the request of the adoptive parent(s).

  5. A, who gave up a child in a closed adoption, seeks information about her child through the adoption agency. It has records that would reveal the identity and location of A's offspring but refuses to provide them, at the child's request.

  6. A, adopted through a closed adoption, instructed the agency not to provide contact information to his birth parent(s). The agency does anyway and the birth parent(s) contact A against his wishes.

  7. A, adopted through a closed adoption, instructed the agency not to provide contact information to his birth parent(s). The birth parent(s) use legal or extra-legal means to obtain the information anyway and contact A against his wishes.
If A has been wronged, what right or entitlement was violated? If there is a right to contact, does it go both ways, and at what point can further contact be refused? If there is a right to certain information, should there be a similarly enforceable right to said information for non-adoptees?
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