Reply #37: Retroactive change on this is the sticking point for me.

[Gormy Cuss]

Prospectively making info available to adult adoptees seems like a step in the right direction. I do think it's unfair to all parties to change the rules after the fact unless there are strict guidelines, such as anonymous medical histories, and access to adoptees only, not surrendering biological parents.
Maine had relatively open adoption until the mid-1950s -- that is, the original birth certificates were available if you knew where to look. I know two people born in the 1950s who discovered that their mothers lived within a couple miles of them their whole lives. That was hard for them to accept. One went to the same schools as his half-siblings.

Others in my circle who sought out the original birth certificate discovered that by itself it wasn't enough to seek out the biological parents. For one thing, the name on the father line was often blank. For the mother, unless her maiden name was unusual or the hometown small it was very hard to trace her over the years. On top of that, the mothers were low income and neither they nor their parents were listed in phone books or city directories. They just lived under the radar and moved frequently. Not much luck getting medical history in that case.