Interview with Ann Rehfuss Mikeska

Anne is an adoptee from Nebraska. She is currently at work writing a fiction-ish novel that treats adoptees from an adoption-informed perspective. She is also participating in an anthology related to her membership in the group Flourish, headed by Pam Cordano and Anne Heffron.  Mentioned in the show: Adoptee Chameleon: adoptees are sometimes described as chameleons, given we often learn to conceal ourselves in order to fit into our environment Kansas laws regarding adoptee access to documents: www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/pages/adoption-records-and-search. Kansas allows adoptees unrestricted access to their own original birth documents.  Nebraska laws regarding adoptee access to documents: dhhs.ne.gov/Pages/Vital-Records-Service-Options.aspx. Nebraska does not allow adoptees unrestricted access to original birth documents. They have a complex, confusing set of regulations governing release.  The District of Columbia; laws regarding adoptee access to documents: The District of Columbia does not allow unrestricted access to adoptions that took place after 1 September, 1937.   Zombie Veto: a veto that maintains restricted access to identifying information even after the death of the parent who has signed a non-consent or redaction veto. * Adoptee Rights Law Center: an excellent resource regarding the status of state laws regarding adoptee access to original birth certificates, established and maintained by lawyer and adoptee Gregory Luce.  23 and Me: a commercial DNA testing company that provides information on health, ethnicity and genetic matches. Salvation Army Booth Memorial Hospital: maternityrecordswest.salvationarmy.org  maintains records from the maternity hospitals once run by the Salvation Hospital. Adoptees born in these hospitals can request and receive redacted non-identifying information about themselves so long as the records still exist.  Lutheran Family Services: www.lfsneb.org Paul Sunderland: Adoption and Addiction Full Lecture, youtube.com United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Adoptees Connect: adopteesconnect.com *Since the recording of this episode, I re-read the laws that allow adoptive parents in Nebraska to deny access to identifying information to adoptees. I had originally misunderstood the law to be a Zombie Veto. While Nebraska adoptive parents may block adoptees from receiving identifying information during their lifetimes, the veto expires after the adoptive parent who filed the veto dies. The adoptee must be able to demonstrate to the state that the adoptive parent in question is deceased. The state promises to make a "reasonable effort to determine if the person is deceased", adoptees have reported that the states efforts are not very vigorous and have missed deaths that occurred in other states.