STAND. COM. REP. NO. 258

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1510

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1510 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADOPTION RECORDS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Provide that after a child is adopted, the child's birth certificate will include the names of either or both of the child's natural parents, regardless of whether the child's adoptive parents request the names of the child's natural parents to be listed; and

 

     (2)  Provide for access to confidential adoption records, under certain circumstances.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Adoption Circle of Hawaii and twenty-nine individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Judiciary.

 

     Your Committee finds that in the mid twentieth century, states began sealing adoption records, and amending birth certificates to substitute the adoptive parents' names in place of the birth parents' names.  At the time, this action was taken to protect adopted persons born to unmarried mothers from the stigma of being considered illegitimate.  Over time, this concept of illegitimacy has become outmoded.

 

     Your Committee also finds that Act 338, Session Laws of Hawaii 1990, allowed access to adoption records for adoptees whose adoptions were finalized in 1991 or thereafter.  However, adoptees whose adoptions were finalized before 1991 must undertake an intermediary search to request access to their adoption records.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the best practices of adoption continue to evolve.  Most child placement agencies practice some form of open adoption, where ethnicity, race, and medical and genetic information, as well as some identifying information about the parties to the adoption, is shared.

 

     Your Committee additionally finds that adult adoptees often desire direct access to identifying information about themselves and their birth parents.  This information can be essential to an adopted adult's identity and health needs.  Your Committee finds that this measure will help all adopted persons in Hawaii obtain access to their adoption records.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1510 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair