Closed Adoption help

[g2ny]

So I am adopted through a closed adoption through an adoption agency. My parents have provided me with all the adoption paper work and documentation they have (none which list biological parents names) I am over 18 and the adoption was a foreign adoption. I would like to find out the names of the biological parents and have contacted the adoption agency and because it was a closed adoption they say they cannot provide me with any information. Is there a way to legally get this information (the names of the biological parents)? I tried to research adoption law but because it is a foreign adoption I'm having trouble. (When I say foreign adoption, I mean I was born in a different country but adopted in the US and am a legal US citizen).

[Proserpina]

Originally Posted by g2ny

So I am adopted through a closed adoption through an adoption agency. My parents have provided me with all the adoption paper work and documentation they have (none which list biological parents names) I am over 18 and the adoption was a foreign adoption. I would like to find out the names of the biological parents and have contacted the adoption agency and because it was a closed adoption they say they cannot provide me with any information. Is there a way to legally get this information (the names of the biological parents)? I tried to research adoption law but because it is a foreign adoption I'm having trouble. (When I say foreign adoption, I mean I was born in a different country but adopted in the US and am a legal US citizen).

Did the entire adoption take place in the US, or was it started in your birth country and then finalized in the US?

[nextwife]

The laws of the nation in which the bioparents lived would determine what can or cannot be disclosed.

In my daughter's birth country, for example, the adoptive parents must actually make a declaration that they will NOT attempt to contact the birth parents and that they understand it is illegal to do so.

If families do not respect the laws of the nation from which they adopt, they will endanger the ability of other children there to be adopted in the future. I am very cautious to be respectful of the laws under which my daughter was adopted, as I do not want to create problems for future adoptors. I don't want some other kids to be "sentenced" to life in an orphanage" just because I or kiddo was curious. Nor, I'm sure, would you.

You need to carefully research the applicable laws and culture of your birth country before attempting to proceed.

There are still stigmas associated with adoption in many other countries, and stigmas about births out of wedlock. What we accept as OK is by no means OK in many other places. While Americans are very open and accepting about adoption, in other places, it is not talked about. Realize that in some cultures, attempting contact with bioparents whose current families may know nothing about your birth could literally ruin the life of a bioparent who may be shunned by their community or lose their spouse. I cannot caution you enough about how careful you need to be. Remember, for example. that in some countries it is "acceptable" for male family members to engage in "honor killings" because a woman was perceived as having "shamed" her family. Know what you are dealing with! Some of these countries have closed adoptions for a reason.