While researching a different post, I came across this question. A prospective adoption parent asked whether or not they should disclose a drug conviction. Uh, yes, definitely!

This is not the first time that I have seen questions about what potential adoptive parents should disclose, and will unlikely be the last time. How would you feel as an birth parent if you found out that you had entrusted your child to a family that had omitted important information about their past or even their present?

Potential adoptive parents have asked whether or not they should reveal depression and/or bi-polar disease. Both are conditions that I consider important to know. Other adoptive parents have struggled with whether or not to reveal past criminal convictions. All these possibilities are relevant.

In Informed Consent - Adoptive Parent Health Jenna wrote disclosing all medical history. I thoroughly agree that at the very least adoptive parents should give detailed information about their family medical history.

However, I feel strongly that just as a woman cannot make a valid decision about whether to choose adoption or not without full and complete information, the same is true for her decison about parents. If a woman intends to entrust her child to someone else to raise, she deserves to know as much as possible about them.

Failure to disclose any significant facts in my opinion is unethical and not very moral either. Women who place children for adoption are told and expect perfection in adoptive parents. They need to know the truth - it is the least that they deserve.

Some disclosures might not matter much at all to them. Others could be deal-breakers, but omissions will usually surface eventually. It could be disastrous when they do.

What about any previous convictions of any kind? If a parent is an alcoholic, is that important to know? The medical history of an adoptive family is a part of what needs to be disclosed, but there is so much more.

Adoptions of the past nearly always included secrecy, and often downright lies. Secrecy and omissions or mistruths should no longer be acceptable.


Further Reading:

How to Decide What Adoption Information to Reveal

One True Benefit to Children From Open Adoption.