The "Baby Scoop Era"

If you're not angry, you're not paying attention.
-Author Unknown

Were you adopted between 1945 and 1973? Welcome to the baby soop era.

After World War II, the governement offered generous support to budding families through home loans and veteran benefits. Many families enjoyed a sense of surplus and a feeling of fulfilling the American Dream. At the same time, those who were percieved as rebelling against that dream were seen as trouble makers and not worthy.

During this time, unethical practices were commonly instituted through social service agencies and supported by the legal system to isolate and coerce young, single, and poor women into surrendering their rights to raise their child, under the adage "in the best interest of the child."

In the best interest of the child was a lie, however well-intentioned.

It is NEVER in the best interest of a child to be prevented from access to biological information. The obvious need for medical information simply goes without saying in today's technologically advanced world. Can you imagine someone telling you it's in your best interest to not know if there is a history of cancer in your family, or any kind of a genetic disorder?

But it goes beyond just the medical realm. The mental realm craves to answer the age old question, who am I? It is as natural of a process in life as breathing and eating. Answering this question isn't about the journey of life, it is life's journey. Identity development is an organic and continuous, dynamic process of human growth. Adoption, where babies are cut off from any knowledge of their parents or relatives, intrudes upon this process.

It has been argued for decades that adoptees do not remain children forever. They grow up and have children of their own. And when they do, they want to pass on knowledge of their biological heritage, medical and otherwise. This can often be a pivotal time for adult adoptees, launching many into a search for their roots - usually beginning with their mother. I'm not convinced this is because the mother is more significant to the adoptee as much as by default - an adoptee knows the mother is findable. Sometimes it may be only through the mother that an adoptee can gain the knowledge of the father's identity.

Meet Jason:

Jason was adopted in 1962, he was nine months old. When Jason and his wife began thinking about having children of their own, it was 1997 and Jason still had no knowledge of his biological relatives. He decided he would search for his mother, who was easily found, living next door to the very same agency where he was adopted thirty-two years earlier. Jason was sad to find that his mother had mourned him her entire life. She was a recovering heroine addict. Jason's mother informed him that his father died in Vietnam before the two of them could wed, and she had received a letter from him that he would be coming home to her soon. It was their last correspondence; she had not saved the letter. Jason decided to locate his father's Captain in the military while he was stationed in Vietnam. The Captain remembered his father well, but had no recollection of him talking about a pregnant girlfriend and said it wouldn't be the sort of thing they would have discussed, recalling Jason's father as an introvert, a trait Jason identified with immediately. Jason was able to track down his father's parents and siblings. They invited him to visit, so he did. Flying half way across the country to see them, he returned to his wife looking crestfallen. The family denied that their son could have been his father, denouncing his mother as a fraud.