Rethinking adoption

I have just published The Stringing of Pearls, which tells my journey to find my birth family at age 40. It was a long and, at times, frustrating search. It throws a light on a time of bigotry and social judgment when women in particular could feel forced into drastic choices.

By sheer coincidence, the Adoption Amendment Act is currently being reviewed in Parliament – and, by another quirk of fate, the Listener’s “rethinking adoption” article (“The ties that bind”, August 13) has just come out. Reading it brought home to me again the huge variety of experiences among adopted children.

I was delighted to see Brigitta Baker’s quote: “Security comes from knowing you are loved, that you are the centre of the world of adults around you.” I was indeed loved, and for that I am eternally grateful.

But tracking my birth history filled in gaps – not all, it has to be said – and in that tracking, I became painfully aware of the “ownership” of documents by agencies, to the point where I was treated like a child when I asked for access to documents that were, in fact, mine. Some had even been destroyed by