At present the scheme of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 provides for the birth records of an adopted person to be disclosed only in limited circumstances, eg where the adopted person applies, or where records are held by an adoption agency which can decide whether disclosure is in the interests of all concerned.

One effect is that the descendants of an adopted person cannot obtain those records unless under Section 79 of the Act they can satisfy the Court that there are exceptional circumstances justifying disclosure.

The Descendants of Deceased Adopted Persons (DAP) group believes that this is unjust and contrary to the intention of the 2002 Act to allow greater access to birth information.

DAP would like to hear from people who:

a) Have been unable to obtain birth details of their deceased adopted parents or older relatives; or
b) Have obtained the information about their deceased adopted parent or relatives from, for example, the original Court where the adoption order was made or from the adoption agency involved in the adoption arrangements.

It is important for DAP to collect background and supporting information to highlight this anomaly in the law and discover how many people are affected and in what way.

Please tell us about your experiences, good or bad, so that we can consider how to improve the legislation. Any information you provide will be regarded as confidential unless you give specific authority for its disclosure.

Send your contact information with a very brief summary of your search experience to:  frances@bigpond.za.net. Please write DAP in the subject line and we will get back to you. Thank you for your time.

Further Information:
Answers to the most frequently asked Questions about access to birth records for descendants of deceased adopted people are provided on the Locating Records section.