At The New Republic, Liza Mundy writes on “The Strange History of the Birth Certificate“:
…As it turns out, the birth certificate is an awkward and hybrid document, tasked with any number of purposes. It dates back to the ancient world, when officials wanted to know how many citizens to tax and conscript, as well as to the 1500s, when the English church began requiring ministers to register christenings. In this country, a few colonies began recording births as early as the 1600s. But the first national model appeared around the turn of the twentieth century, as part of a health and sanitation movement. Officials needed birth (and death) records to calculate the mortal effects of epidemics, industrialization, and urban overcrowding.
and
…consider how strange it is that we gather nuanced data on a mother’s education or Hispanic origins or use of government-funded groceries, and ignore an egg that that didn’t come from her. All told, there can be as many as five people contributing to a birth by assisted reproduction: egg donor, surrogate, sperm donor, legal mother, legal father. We know that genetic history foretells a lot about well-being. We know that the genome unfolds, or “expresses” itself, in the womb. So a surrogate has an impact on children’s health, and so do donors, at birth and thereafter. If you’ve ever gone for a physical, you’ve been asked about your family history: breast cancer, heart conditions, strokes. It’s a problem if tens of thousands of people are walking around thinking they are related to the wrong parents.
So it seems time to make birth certificates more honest and transparent. I admit this is idealistic, and hard.
More.
(Below, an old Soviet birth certificate, via Creative Commons at Flickr.)
Categories: Reproductive Technologies, The Future of Parenthood
Thank you so much for posting this. This is it – this is the one thing that millions of people need changed in order to have their full rights. The falsified birth certifivcate.
People say that certificates of adoption or having donor offspirn noted on your birth record will cause discrimination. Well discrimination is ullegal so there is a remedy for that. But falsifying records to avoid discrimination is like saying to black people
here’s some white face paint don’t let anyone know your black or —its up to you if you want to tell people your black – its your story until then we’ll just make you look white.
Marilyn – I have to disagree with you. There should be a certificate with all the information that the kid can get when they grow up. While they are growing up, they should have a document they can show people without having to explain their life story to them. If they want to, they can always tell people, but they need to keep control of their own information.
(There should be a certificate with all the information that the kid can get when they grow up.)
I disagree with this. Basically you are proposing this birth certificate because you believe children have a right to this information and the state is obligated protect that right regardless of the feelings of all the other adults involved. Then what? They get a letter at 18? After asserting this right and assigning the state to protect it – it goes dormant for 18 years. That doesn’t seem to be in the best interests of the child.
(While they are growing up, they should have a document they can show people without having to explain their life story to them.}
I agree with this 100%.
“(While they are growing up, they should have a document they can show people without having to explain their life story to them.}
I agree with this 100%.”
Nobody else gets to pretend that they are not the child of their bio parents. What is so damned embarrassing about the truth? This is who my parents are this is who my adoptive parents are.