Adoption is a creature of statute, specifically state statute. Unlike Congress, state legislatures do not normally keep a detailed record of the debate over a bill. It is difficult, therefore, to determine a legislature’s intent in passing state laws. Historical trends, however, in adoption state statutes are available for study.
The earliest statutes did not contain privacy provisions and until the early twentieth century, adoption proceedings, including party names were printed in newspapers. The first statutes providing any measure of privacy for the parties were passed in the early twentieth century and were aimed at removing the adoption process from the public record. The records were sealed to everyone except the parties and their attorneys. There was no anonymity between the biological and adoptive parents, and indeed, many states required the birth parents to give their consent to the adoption in front of the adopting parents.
Total anonymity was originally used as a method of securing more infants than older children for adoption. Birth mothers were told that their request for anonymity would not be honored unless they surrendered their offspring for adoption. This method was especially effective at coercing single mothers.
Anonymity was not an issue in adoptions until the 1920s. Prior to that, most judicially approved adoptions were frequently the "result of informal or unsupervised placements in which few if any details were known or recorded about the child."
During the 1920s, professional social workers’ organizations pushed for he sealing of adoption records. These organizations were advocating adoptions handled by agencies rather than private individuals. The purposes for this proposed shift in adoption trends were to provide greater integration of the adoptive family and greater separation between the adoptee and the biological family.
Throughout the twenties many states allowed judges to exercise discretion whether to seal the records. Once the records were sealed, however, good cause was needed to gain access to the records. It was not until the late 1930s that New York sealed all adoption records and required the issuance of revised birth certificates. Other states followed suit at that time and some waited until the 1940s or 1950s to do so. Eventually sealed records became the norm and support for the laws came from lawyers, psychologists, child welfare organizations and social workers.
Sources
In Re Clark, 87 Cal. 638, 641, 25 P. 967, 968 (1889)
1 Joan Heifetz Hollinger et al., Adoption Law and Practice § 1.03[4] (perm. ed. rev. vol. 1999)
2 Hollinger et al. § 13.01[1]
