A bill to remedy the situation of children who had been given false birth certificates that did not record their adopted status was unveiled yesterday. Sponsored by Labour TD, Joan Burton, the Informal Adoption (Regulation) Bill would allow those affected to make an application to the Circuit Court to register their legal adopted status.
It happens as the Government prepares to pass a law allowing ‘parent’ to appear on birth certs where a donor egg or sperm is used to have a child.
Speaking about the adoption bill, Ms Burton said: “The information provided to register the births was false and the children were as a result given false birth certificates, as the children of the ‘adopting’ couple. This is where the illegal registration occurred.”
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said she is aware of the bill’s publication and promised to “take a look at it and get back to you on it”.
The bill seeks to define what happened in illegal or ‘informal’ adoptions and will allow people to apply to the Circuit Court to validate their adoption. If satisfied with the evidence presented, the court may make a declaration that the applicant is deemed to have been validly adopted, on a particular date. The Registrar of Births will cancel the false birth certificate, while the Adoption Authority will issue a valid adoption certificate.
Margaret Norton is another illegal adoptee, who was given away by a GP in Co Monaghan in the seventies. She revealed it took her eight years to track down her biological parents via a DNA test because she was given a false birth cert.
Margaret said: “(We thought) we would just check the national birth registry, but there were no records for me. My birth cert was a fraud.” Luckily, she said a DNA test connected her to a cousin.
