I posted this comment to the Jan. 24, 2018 NYT column by The Ethicist entitled, What if I Don’t Want to See the Child I Gave Up for Adoption?, By Kwame Anthony Appiah
Please remember, adoptees grow up to be tax paying, voting, adult citizens. We do not remain children. The "Ethicist's" casual dismissal of the need for family medical history would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that right now, in the present, adults and children alike, are searching for answers to rare genetic diseases, answers that they find when they gain access to their origin info. Vague mention of a someday when the genome is decoded is hardly an acceptable, well thought-out response.
Also, saying "some adopted children are curious" is like a slap in the face. THE MAJORITY OF HUMANITY IS CURIOUS. The non-adopted just have their answers readily available to them and so they don't give it a second thought. Even with the wealth of information available to most non-adopted, Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, 23&Me shows its latest numbers in the multimillions of people testing. Adoptees are only 2% of the population so it isn't adoptees buying up all those testing kits, right? Its everyone! Why? To find out all they can about themselves.
Please quit talking about adoptees as perpetual children and making them out to be some kind of freaks for wanting their origin information. It is normal and natural to want to know your beginnings and can be traumatizing living a life without this information. We are not asking for much. Just what everyone else has....and takes for granted. Next time, please do a little more research, "Ethicist." As a discerning reader of the NYT, I expect something a lot more fair and balanced than this pat, predictable, simplistic answer.
