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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2000)
Court grants adoptees right to track down parents ■The U.S. Supreme Court rejects a request by six mothers to delay the law By Brad Cain The Associated Press SALEM — Perhaps Geena’s Stonum’s birth parents aren’t even alive. Or maybe they’d rather that she stay away from them. But as of Wednesday, state law is no longer keeping this adoptee — and thou sands more — from finding out their true parents’ identities. “I have a wonderful family, but there’s still that piece that’s miss ing,” said the 41-year-old Stonum, a mother of two. “When you see people who maybe look like you, you wonder if they’re maybe relat ed to you.” On Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Con nor rejected an emergency request *to delay Oregon’s 1998 adoption records law from going into effect. That ended two years of court battles begun by a group of birth mothers who argued the new law violates the privacy of people like themselves who gave up their children for adoption and started new lives. The Oregon Health Division on Wednesday will begin processing applications of more than 2,200 adoptees who already have paid $15 to get their original birth cer tificates. Most are eager to know their parents’ identities, and many want to know more about their medical histories. It could take up to six weeks to finish mailing cer tificates to adoptees, the agency said. While adoptees eagerly antici pated the chance to learn about their past, Frank Hunsaker, attor ney for a group of six anonymous birth mothers who had fought the law in court, was bitter about the removal of the last legal roadblock. “My clients are extremely dis appointed and scared and even angry that their rights have been ignored by Oregon’s voters and Oregon’s courts,” Hunsaker said. He said the adoption law, which gives adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates, vi olates an implied contract the women thought they had that their identities would be protected and that they would never be con tacted by the children they relin quished. There are some birth mothers “who haven’t even told spouses or { C For years I did live in shame, but it's a whole different world now. Delores Teller adoptees’ rights activist n family members” that years ago they gave birth to children they gave up for adoption, Hunsaker said. “They made decisions based on promises that they could move on with their lives.” But Delores Teller, an adoptees’ rights activist, argued the new law will help birth mothers as well as adoptees. Teller put her own baby up for adoption when she was 16 because she didn’t want to live with the shame of being an unwed mother. Teller said times have changed — being a single parent is no longer a stigma — and that should be reflected in the state’s adoption regulations. “It (the law) affirms for us that - what happened back then should n’t have been so shameful and se cret,” Teller said. “For years I did live in shame, but it’s a whole dif ferent world now. ” The law first was approved by Oregon voters in November 1998 after a campaign in which | adoptees said that finding their r birth parents could help detect po tential health problems and, more importantly, give them a sense of identity. Last week, a state appellate court refused to extend an earlier stay blocking the law from taking effect, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the only option for oppo nents. O’Connor, who fields emer gency matters from Oregon for the nation’s highest court, rejected the six anonymous birth mothers’ re quest to stay the law. Her action meant it would go into effect at 5:01 p.m. Tuesday, the deadline set earlier by the state Supreme Court. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a similar open adoption records law from Ten nessee. Tennessee and just three other states — Alaska, Delaware and Kansas — allow adult adoptees ac cess to original birth certificates, which often have birth parents’ names. An adoption records bill in Alabama is awaiting the gover nor’s signature. A spokesman for the Nation Council for Adoption, a Washing ton-based group that opposes opening adoption records, pre dicted that the number of Oregon adoptions would decline because birth mothers no longer have guar antees of confidentiality. “I think a majority of the women will reluctantly decide to keep the baby, to try to make it as a single parent, and the others will termi nate the pregnancy,” Bill Pierce said. Vacancies continued from page 1 in Eugene, the market is much tighter in terms of vacancies. Arlene Graham, a property manager with Portland Rental Service, said that out of more than 200 properties that she manages, there is only one current vacancy. “While properties around the campuses here have higher va cancies than those in other parts of Portland, we have a lot of stu dents who live in outlying parts of I-— ' - the city and commute to the uni versities,” she said. Graham also said that her com pany deals with a large number of people wanting to share housing, much like the market in Eugene. “The quality of housing has definitely climbed here,” she said. Jerry Duerksen, a broker with Duerksen and Associates, a prop erty management company in Corvallis, said that vacancy rates there are often around 2 to 3 per cent during the year. In the sum mer, that rate only increases to 5 or 6 percent. “We are expecting a record en rollment at [Oregon State Univer sity] this year, and the existing units are already filled up,” Duerksen said. fie said that several upscale units were built in the mid-1990s, and even those are filled to capac ity. “Things are definitely tighter now than they have been in the past,” he said. However, rents in both Port land and Corvallis are compara ble to those in Eugene. Graham said that while downtown rents are rather high, those in southern Portland are “more than reason able.” According to Duerksen, rents in Corvallis range from $225 for a quad apartment to $1000-plus for a four-bedroom house. Many property management companies will offer discounts on summer rents if students are plan ning to live in Eugene in order to finish a lease or attend summer school. Kent Jennings, owner of Jen nings Property Management Co., said that his company offers 30 to 50 percent off on summer rents, and some properties in Eugene have up to 20 percent vacancy rates during the summer months. He attributed the renter-friend ly market to the several new up scale units that have been built in the last few years. “All of the new product being built everywhere, along with the new affluence among students, will make prices more stable,” he said. “There will be a lot more deals and a better selection out there.” Treetop Refuge For Howler Monkeys A Belizean sanctuary redefines conservation Burning Questions A chemical weapons incineration complex nears completion in rural Oregon Coyote Eradication In The West A federal program aims to protect livestock Twenty Years After The Eruption Life comes back to Mount St. Helens
