Committee considers bill to ease restrictions on adoption records

Monday, May 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

AB411 would establish an intermediary at the state level to help connect adoptees with their birth parents by collecting information from Nevada and other states according to varying state adoption laws. Names, addresses and other information would be kept confidential unless both parties agreed to meet.

Assemblywoman Vivian Freeman, D-Reno, sponsored the bill because she says adoptees have the right to know their genetic risks for medical conditions like breast cancer.

But Assemblyman Brian Sandoval, R-Reno, said the measure could have a chilling effect on adoptions because many people want to be assured of confidentiality when they put babies up for adoption.

Christian Anderson, an adoptee and the director of social services for the Mormon Church in Nevada, agreed with Sandoval.

"Confidentiality is necessary to retain adoption as an alternative for birth parents," Anderson said. "This would shift the burden, making confidentiality the exeption and not the rule."

State adoption specialist Wanda Scott, who works within the Division of Child and Family Services, said a state adoption registry already makes it possible to obtain medical records.

Birth parents and adoptees can voluntarily include their names on the registry, which can then be used to connect families or to share medical information without revealing a specific name.

About 600 to 700 adoptees and 200 birth parents are now included on Nevada's registry, Scott said.