Frederick F. Greenman Jr. '61 LL.M. '63 fights for a right almost everyone takes for granted. All people, he believes, should be able to find out the identity of those responsible for their birth. Greenman is a pro bono legal adviser to the American Adoption Congress (AAC), the attorney in New York City has assisted with the successful defense of recent laws in Tennessee and Oregon granting adult adoptees access to their records. These laws reverse a decades-old practice of sealing adoptees' original birth certificates, making them accessible only by court order.
For years, the National Council for Adoption and its former president, William L. Pierce, told legislators and right-to-life groups that allowing adoptees access to identifying information about... [more]