Tullamore woman pushing for adoption rights reform
Ireland's claims of being an equal society are being undermined by the failure of the state to allow adoptees access to their personal information on “health, heritage and history”.
That's according to Tullamore's Maree Ryan-O’Brien, adoptee identity rights campaigner and founder of Aitheantas, who was speaking to the Offaly Independent this week.
“Adoptees have no automatic right to their own information, they have no ownership of their own identity. This is out of step as regards international norms, medical best practice and the rights of other Irish citizens. The legislation pertaining to adoptees goes back to 1952, 67 years ago. Aitheantas is delivering a mandate for change and reform.”
Ms Ryan-O'Brien says that she has been “luckier than most” adoptees as she met her birth mother when she was 19 and received a lot of information about her past. It was when she tried to get more medical information after her first child was born that she “hit a wall”.
“We can all relate to someone going to the doctor and being asked is there any history of a serious disease in your family. In most cases it's quite embarrassing for people to say I am adopted and I don't know.
“It's just really a practical thing and about allowing a greater autonomy and greater freedom and greater equality. When we have been through two referendums where we voted for equality and personal autonomy it just seems nonsensical that there aren't the same freedoms available for somebody who just happened to be born illegitimate at a time when it was societally unacceptable. It isn't an issue now. It was back in the day. We need to look at how the system is treating people. In many ways you are dehumanised going through it.
“...I am proud of my identity as an adoptee. I feel enriched by it. I don't in anyway feel lesser because of it and I wouldn't like anyone else to either. It is just really a practical issue. We have people who are hurting. They are hurting on many levels. They are hurting because they don't have a connection to their past. They don't have medical information and as I always point out adoption is also an inherited condition. We pass it on. So for example, my children are the children of an adoptee; they've inherited my lack of information about my own background. Where I have been very lucky to access most of it, other people aren't.”
At the January meeting of Offaly County Council, local councillors unanimously passed a motion in support of Aitheantas. This motion calls on Minister Zappone's department to acknowledge adoptee identity rights and to allow adoptees access to their own information on health, heritage and history.
As an Offaly woman, Ms Ryan-O'Brien said that she was “proud” that the council became the second in the country to support her group's campaign.
“I would like to thank all the councillors including Cllr Tony McCormack and Cllr John Leahy for proposing and seconding our motion. Aitheantas means identity as gaelige, something adoptees are currently denied by our State.
“Aitheantas is delivering a strong, public voice from grassroots to all political parties that this denial of identity based on circumstances of birth is not what people want or expect in 2019,” she ended.