I mentioned in a news roundup post a few days back a story about a Canadian woman who had slapped her elderly adoptive mother with a lawsuit claiming her adoption had been conducted under fraudulent circumstance and that she had suffered “emotionally and financially” because of it.
It is back in the news in an expanded version that suggests hideously nefarious circumstances in that case and others.
A report on violence against women from the United Nations Economic and Social Council, refers to the case of an unmarried woman who gave birth at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital in 1970. The 2003 report says Tina Kelly was reportedly told by her doctor that the baby boy had died and that she was not allowed to see its body.
Kelly later realized she had never received a copy of the death certificate, the report says. The hospital’s records indicated her baby went home with her.
She later reunited with her son.Kelly allegedly discovered her child had been put up for adoption and that her doctor had accepted a bribe.
A Quebec search and reunion worker says that she believes “false claims of stillbirths were common in her province” during the “baby scoop era”, and there are apparently many who agree with her assessment, as other examples are given in the article.
Thanks to patient addressing of adoptee issues by readers, some of what had been slipping under my personal radar no longer does, so the last paragraph in this report brought me up short and has my conspiracy detector beeping.
Marge, an Edmonton adoptee who has long searched for her birth parents, said she fears the lawsuit will discourage the government from increasing access to adoption records.
Is it possible that there’s an element of spin happening here? Could it be that some of the attention this topic is getting now, or possibly even the lawsuit, has been inspired or manipulated to impact the fight for open records?
I certainly don’t mean to suggest that bad things didn’t happen, but in this world where much contention pits one against the other, often in confusing ways, it seems worth a wonder.
And, by the way, has the UN stated a position on adoptee rights and open records?
Anyone … ?
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Paradise Preoccupied 