Senate Bill No. 641

(By Senator Rowe)

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[Introduced February 23, 2004; referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §48-23-102 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the mutual consent voluntary adoption registry; providing for the release of identifying information about birth siblings to an adult adoptee; and setting forth conditions for such release.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §48-23-102 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
 ARTICLE 23. VOLUNTARY ADOPTION REGISTRY.
 §48-23-102. Legislative purpose.
The purpose of this article is to:
(1) Set up a mutual consent voluntary adoption registry where birth parents and adult adoptees may register their willingness to the release of identifying information to each other;
(2) To provide for the disclosure of such identifying information to birth parents or adoptees, or both, through a social worker employed by a licensed adoption agency, provided each birth parent and the adult adoptee voluntarily registers on his or her own; and
(3) To provide for the transmission of nonidentifying health and social and genetic history to the adult adoptees, birth parents and other specified persons; and
(4) To provide for disclosure of identifying information for cause shown; and
(5) To provide for the disclosure of identifying information regarding birth siblings to the adult adoptee, but only if:
(A) The birth parent or parents have registered their willingness to have their identifying information released; or
(B) The birth parent or parents are deceased.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow adult adoptees to obtain information about siblings from their birth families, but only where the birth parent or parents have voluntarily placed their names on the register indicating their willingness to have their identifying information released, or the birth parent or parents are deceased.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.