An inquiry into historical adoption practices has been warned the government will be holding a similar inquiry into donor-conceived children in years to come, and likely issuing them an apology.
Key points:
- A parliamentary inquiry into forced adoption is underway in Perth
- Today it was warned of issues faced by people conceived using donors
- An agency that supports people affected by adoption is closing its doors
It comes as Jigsaw WA, which is a key agency connecting people with their biological parents, revealed it will close its doors at the end of the year.
A West Australian government committee is investigating the impact of past adoptive policies and practices between1939 and 1980, during which time unmarried mothers were forced to give up their babies for adoption.
Well over 150,000 babies were removed from their unwed mothers across Australia during a peak period from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Giving evidence to the committee, Jigsaw WA manager Isabel Andrews said she and others at a medical conference 30 years ago had warned the issues that had arisen in adoption in Australia were going to occur in donor conception.
“But it’s not a view that was wanted to be listened to,” Ms Andrews told the committee.
Jigsaw WA assists people with reconnecting with biological family in the context of adoption, foster care, separation and reproductive technologies.
She said these days people were discovering they were donor-conceived through online genealogical providers that test your DNA and finding they had “20, or 30 siblings”.
“In adoption if you are a family and didn’t have a baby, and you suddenly have a baby, it’s [often] been kept secret … but it’s there for most people [to see],” she told the committee.
“In donor conception, no one’s going to ask you how you got pregnant … so the ability to hide it has been very great.”
Donor-conceived children a ‘huge issue’
Legal changes in Western Australia mean people conceived by this method beyond 2004 can apply for information that will help them track down their biological parent, but Ms Andrews said past donor conceptions were going to be an issue.
“It’s a huge issue,” she said.
Ms Andrews also revealed that Jigsaw, one of two organisations funded by the WA Department of Communities to work with victim-survivors of forced adoptions, will close its doors at the end of the year.
She said the Health Department had asked them in 2019 to maintain a contact register for donor conception, but that the department took it back over at the end of last year, which was part of the reason they decided to close.
“When we took that work on it was a logical fit with the work we do, and there’s an increase in artificial reproductive technology and thankfully a decrease in adoption, so it was going to be the transition,” she said.
The committee also heard from Department of Communities director general Mike Rowe who said they had not been able to establish whether predecessor departments had a role in forced adoptions in WA.
He also acknowledged delays in providing access to records for people who were seeking information about biological family members.
The committee heard while the majority of records had been digitised, some remained in warehouses on microfilm.
Mr Rowe said it had previously taken an average of eight to 10 months but it was down to six to eight months now, and they hoped to get it down to four months by the end of this year.
The committee heard the department has 234 outstanding applications for information relating to adoption.
One of the remits of the committee is establishing the role of the state government in forced adoption practices, and investigate potential redress.
Victoria recently announced it would provide redress to victim-survivors of the practice.
The department’s adoptive services team leader, Leisel Gage, told the committee there were five local and one international adoption in WA in the last financial year, as well as 16 adult adoptions and two step parent adoptions.