Scott Smith and Maureen Hayden report:
Dan Zehner had to wait close to 50 years to meet his seven brothers and sisters. That fact, more than anything else, is his biggest regret as an adoptive child.
Now Zehner, a Kokomo Fire Department inspector, is backing legislation to make it easier for other adoptive children to find their families.
Last month, he testified before an Indiana House committee in favor of a bill, authored by Rep. Mike Karickhoff, a Republican from Kokomo, which would make significant changes to Indiana state adoption law.
Read more in the News and Tribune.
The denial of adoptees equal access to their own birth certificates is a civil and human rights issue being fought currently in approx 19 states.
These rights were taken from adopted citizens in the 1940s when “illegitimacy” was stigmatizing – which is no longer the case. Thus, the time has come to repeal these outdared draconian and discriminating regulations.