NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH PUBLIC HEARING Legislation To Allow Adoptees To Access Their Original Birth Certificate New York City Room 1923 250 Broadway January 31, 2014 10:00 am. - 4:12 p.m. Page 2 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 ASSEMBLY MEMBERS PRESENT: ASSEMBLY MEMBER RICHARD GOTTFRIED, CHAIR, ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH ASSEMBLY MEMBER DAVID WEPRIN ASSEMBLY MEMBER CHARLES LAVINE ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOSEPH BORELLI Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 3 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 INDEX John M. Czygier, Jr. 10 Surrogate’s Court, Suffolk County Panel: Kathleen Rice 35 Nassau County District Attorney Eric Phillips Assistant Ellen Mohr 36 Aaron Britvan, Esq. 42 Chairperson of the Adoption Committee Family Law Section NYS Bar Association Panel: Joyce Bahr 63 President, New York Statewide Adoption Reform’s Unsealed Initiative Ellyn Essig, Esq Legal Advisor (Accompanied by: Michael Schoer, Brooklyn & Staten Island Coordinator; Larry Dell, PR Director; Jeff Hancock, Regional Director, Western NY; and Marsha Raffloer, Long Island Coordinator, and Dennis Sumlin) Hon. Peter Kelly 70 Surrogate’s Court, Queens County Executive Chair, NYS Surrogates Association Adam Pertman 90 President Donaldson Adoption Institute Dana Stallard, LCSW 107 Spence Chapin Adoption Service Professor Elizabeth Samuels 114 Baltimore School of Law Researcher on Sealed Birth Certificates Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 4 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 Peter W. Franklin RPh 129 Adoptees Without Liberty (AWOL) Joe Soll, LCSW 135 Psychotherapist Adoption Healing, Inc. Dr. Judy Kelly, PhD, LMHC 140 Doris Bertocci, LCSW 150 Clinical Social Worker/Therapist Leanne Jaffe, MA, LCSW 163 Psychotherapist/Consultant Adapting to Adoption Lorraine Dusky 180 Nancy Horgan 199 Michelle Wadowski 210 Facilitator Manhattan Birth Parents Support Group Panel: Jane Acton 212 Elsa Chung 224 Maureen Sheridan 230 Mary Anne Devine 242 Cindy Garet Sippin 249 Joe Brandt 261 Joe Pessalono 265 Carla Marie Rupp 270 James Lane 272 Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 5 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 Rod Shinners 295 Panel: Theresa Stanton 302 Ron Stanton 302 Michael Schoer 310 Brooklyn & Staten Island Coordinator New York Statewide Adoption Reform’s Unsealed Initiative Pat O’Brien 318 President New York State Citizens Coalition for Children Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 6 1 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 2 (The public hearing commenced at 10:00 3 a.m.) 4 ASSEMBLY MEMBER RICHARD GOTTFRIED, 5 CHAIR, ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH: Okay, if 6 people could take their seats, we will begin, 7 we've got a long day. I'm Richard Gottfried, I 8 chair the Health Committee in the New York State 9 Assembly. I want to start off by wishing 10 everyone a Happy New Year. We are joined this 11 morning by two other members of the assembly 12 health committee, Charles Lavine and Joe, Joseph 13 Borelli, and also by David Weprin, assembly 14 member David Weprin who is the sponsor of the 15 bill that is the subject of the hearing. 16 A few procedural announcements, as is 17 the long-standing practice of the Health 18 Committee, all witnesses will be testifying under 19 oath; what that means is when you come up, take 20 your seat, I will ask you if you swear or affirm 21 that the testimony you are about to give is true 22 and if you say yes, you get to testify. For the 23 benefit of the, of the recording mechanism, and 24 ultimately the making of a transcript, if you Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 7 1 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 2 could before you begin clearly state your name. 3 We will be going straight through, at some point 4 in mid-day we will take about a ten minute break 5 for, for what in the health world we call 6 ambulation and toileting, but other than that we 7 will be going straight through. We have a lot of 8 witnesses, and let me just say to the witnesses, 9 we definitely want to hear what everyone has to 10 say but in order to enable everyone to have their 11 say before nightfall, if others have made points 12 the same as or similar to yours feel free to say, 13 I agree with so-and-so or I agree with all of the 14 people who have said, whatever. And to the 15 extent you can do that that will help move things 16 along for everyone here today. 17 I'm not going to make an opening 18 statement, I know Mr. Weprin wants to say a 19 couple of words, do either or you folks want to 20 say anything? 21 ASSEMBLY MEMBER CHARLES LAVINE: No, but 22 thank you. 23 ASSEMBLY MEMBER GOTTFRIED: Okay, David? 24 ASSEMBLY MEMBER DAVID WEPRIN: Thank Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 8 1 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 2 you, Chairman Gottfried. I want to start off by 3 thanking the health committee chairman, Richard 4 Gottfried, for holding this hearing. This has 5 been a piece of legislation that's been around 6 the legislature for many, many years, although 7 it's gotten significant momentum in the last 8 couple years and I don't think we've ever had a 9 public hearing, that I know of, on this piece of 10 legislation. So I want to start off by thanking 11 Chairman Gottfried for bringing this hearing 12 today and, of course, as well as Speaker Sheldon 13 Silver, for bringing this hearing today. 14 We now have over 80 sponsors of a bill 15 that I call the Adoptee Bill of Rights. It only 16 takes 76 sponsors to pass a bill in the assembly, 17 it is a bipartisan sponsorship, we have a 18 significant number of republicans as well as 19 democrats and Senator Andrew Lanza is now the 20 prime sponsor of a companion bill in the senate 21 also known as the Adoptee Bill of Rights, which 22 allows adult adoptce -- adoptees access to their 23 original birth certificate and medical history to 24 treat illness related to family history and Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 9 1 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 2 genetics. Amending the existing New York 3 adoption law will provide adult adoptees with the 4 same access to information that a non-adopted 5 person has the legal right to obtain. No one, in 6 my opinion, should be denied the right to obtain 7 information about themselves concerning their 8 medical history and ethnicity and it is 9 unacceptable that adult adoptees are the only 10 group of citizens in New York State that are 11 unable to obtain their birth and family medical 12 records. 13 When several diseases and preventative 14 care treatments are linked to family history and 15 genetics, it is imperative that adoptees are able 16 to receive access to the hereditary history so 17 that medical professionals are given all of the 18 necessary information to cure potentially life- 19 threatening illnesses. As a prime sponsor of the 20 Adoptee Bill of Rights, and on behalf of all of 21 the New Yorkers waiting to acquire a copy of 22 their birth certificate and family history, we 23 look forward to hearing testimony from all of the 24 health professionals, adoptees, advocacy groups, Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 10 1 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 2 lawyers, civic organizations, veterans, and 3 constituents affected by this issue throughout 4 the State of New York. Thank you. 5 ASSEMBLY MEMBER GOTTFRIED: Thank you. 6 We will now proceed to our first witness, John 7 Czygier, who is the surrogate court judge of 8 Suffolk county. While Judge Czygier is coming 9 up, I just want to express again my, my apology 10 for the fact that because of an error in my 11 office, there were several people who did not get 12 early notification of this hearing and I'm glad, 13 Judge, you are able to be here. I, because I 14 think it's very important that we hear your 15 views. 16 JUDGE JOHN M. CZYGIER, JR., SURROGATE's 17 COURT, SUFFOLK, COUNTY: Alright, thank you, 18 again, thank you. 19 ASSEMBLY MEMBER GOTTFRIED: Oh, and do 20 you swear or affirm -- 21 JUDGE CZYGIER: Oh. 22 ASSEMBLY MEMBER GOTTFRIED: -- that the 23 testimony you are about to give is true? 24 JUDGE CZYGIER: Yes, I do. Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 11 1 Standing Committee on Health, January 31, 2014 2 ASSEMBLY MEMBER GOTTFRIED: Thank you. 3 JUDGE CZYGIER: Again, thank you for the 4 opportunity of allowing me to be here, 5 notwithstanding the short notice, I'll try and 6 put together a presentation that will be brief 7 and to the point. In fact, I did ask that this 8 be adjourned but apparently this has been long- 9 planned, okay, not, not that we knew about it.