Listening to late discovery adoption and donor offspring stories : adoption, ethics and implications for contemporary donor insemination practices

摘要

For most of the 20th Century a ‘closed’ system of adoption was practisedudthroughout Australia and other modern Western societies. This ‘closed’udsystem was characterised by sealed records; amended birth certificates toudconceal the adoption, and prohibited contact with all biological family.udDespite claims that these measures protected these children from the taint ofudillegitimacy the central motivations were far more complex, involving auddesire to protect couples from the stigma of infertility and to provide audsocially acceptable family structure (Triseliotis, Feast, & Kyle, 2005;udMarshall & McDonald, 2001).udFrom the 1960s significant evidence began to emerge that many adoptedudchildren and adults were experiencing higher incidences of psychologicaluddifficulties, characterised by problems with psychological adjustment,udbuilding self-esteem and forming a secure personal identity. Theseuddifficulties became grouped under the term ‘genealogical bewilderment’.udAs a result, new policies and practices were introduced to try to place theudbest interests of the child at the forefront. These changes reflected newudunderstandings of adoption; as not only an individual process but also as audsocial and relational process that continues throughout life. Secrecy and theudwithholding of birth information are now prohibited in the overwhelmingudmajority of all domestic adoptions processed in Australia (Marshall &udMcDonald, 2001).udOne little known consequence of this ‘closed’ system of adoption was theudsignificant number of children who were never told of their adoptive status.udAs a consequence, some have discovered or had this information disclosed to them, as adults.udThe first study that looked at the late discovery of genetic originsudexperiences was conducted by the Post Adoption Resource Centre in NewudSouth Wales in 1999. This report found that the participants in their studyudexpressed feelings of disbelief, confusion, anger, sorrow and loss. Further,udthe majority of participants continued to struggle with issues arising fromudthis intentional concealment of their genetic origins (Perl & Markham,ud1999).udA second and more recent study (Passmore, Feeney & Foulstone, 2007)udlooked at the issue of secrecy in adoptive families as part of a broader studyudof 144 adult adoptees. This study found that secrecy and/or lies orudmisinformation on the part of adoptive parents had negative effects on bothudpersonal identity and relationships with others. The authors noted that thoseudadoptees who found out about their adoption as adults were ‘especiallyudlikely to feel a sense of betrayal’ (p.4).udOver recent years, stories of secrecy and late discovery have also started toudemerge from sperm donor conceived adults (Spencer, 2007; Turner &udCoyle, 2000). Current research evidence shows that although a majority ofudcouples during the donor assisted conception process indicate that theyudintend to tell the offspring about their origins, as many as two-thirds orudmore of couples continue to withhold this information from their childrenud(Akker, 2006; Gottlieb, A. McWhinnie, 2001; Salter-Ling, Hunter, &udGlover, 2001).udWhy do they keep this secret? Infertility involves a range of complexudfactors that are often left unresolved or poorly understood by those choosingudinsemination by donor as a form of family building (Schaffer, J. A., &udDiamond, R., 1993). These factors may only impact after the child is born,udwhen resemblance talk becomes most pronounced. Resemblance talk is anudaccepted form of public discourse and a social convention that legitimises the child as part of the family and is part of the process of constructing theudchild’s identity within the family. Couples tend to become focused onudresemblance as this is where they feel most vulnerable, and the lack ofudresemblance to the parenting father may trigger his sense of loss (Becker,udButler, & Nachtigall, 2005).