Oregon's Adoption Debate

Fifty-year old Curtis Endicott is searching for his identity. Adopted as an infant, he desperately wants to know who his birth mother is. And as CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen reports, that option may soon be well within his rights.

"Just a lot of holes that need to be filled in."

Endicott is the human face on Oregon's ballot measure 58, a proposal that would give generations of adoptees the right to see their birth certificates, and their mother's name on it.

Endicott, suffering from emphysema and back problems, says it could be a matter of life and death:

But adoption counselor Lauren Greenbaum says the proposed change is one-sided, and unfair to the thousands of birth mothers in her agency's files who were promised anonymity, and who never want to see the child they gave up.

"On the surface, it looks like a great idea. If I didn't work in adoption, I would look at it and say great," she says.
"It is not a balanced measure, it puts all of the rights and all of the concerns in the hands of the adoptee. And it does not address a birth parent's privacy, and the promise of confidentiality that was made to her."

Twenty-one-year-old Erin Faulhaber's name is in the Oregon adoption agency's files. She is a birth mother who gave her infant son away, Faulhaber says the proposal is unnerving.

she says. "I don t feel that it's very equal. And I don t feel that it lends anything to the birth mother's emotions, feelings, or the trauma they have gone through."

If Oregon voters approve, it will give all adoptees, 21 and older, the right to see their original birth certificate, and give them a name to search for. That's enough for Curtiss Endicott.

"If my birth mother does not want contact with me, I'll respect that because that's her right. I hope she'll say, 'I wondered what happened to you! Good to hear from you!' That's the response I'm hoping for," says Endicott.

It's been the hope for generations of adopted kids, and come election day in Oregon, it may just become reality.