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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Adoptive LDS Attorney Fighting To Protect Birth Mothers
Portland OR Oregonian 6Mar00 D6
By Janie Har:The Oregonian staff
PORTLAND, OREGON -- LDS Attorney Franklin Hunsaker, 57, is at the
forefront of a lawsuit over a controversial new Oregon law that would
allow adoptees to discover the identity of birth mothers. The law,
known as Measure 58, was passed by a voter referendum. It give adult
adoptees access to their original birth certificates. The Oregon
Supreme Court could issue its decision on Hunsaker's challenge to the
law as early as today.
This Oregonian article profiles both Hunsaker and Thomas McDermott,
57, who represents the state of Oregon in defending the law. Both men
have adopted children, and therefore have a personal connection to
the issue. Hunsaker represents six anonymous birth mothers who say
they were promised confidentiality when they gave up their children
for adoption.
Hunsaker has four adopted children, the oldest 30 and the youngest
16. He never shielded them from the fact that they were adopted, and
each has a scrapbook about his or her adoption.
But Hunsaker thinks that birth mothers should be viewed as brave
women who love their children so much that they give them up. He says
they do so based in part on the promise of confidentiality so they
can move on with their lives. "The fact that I'm an adoptive parent
doesn't mean that I shouldn't have and don't have and can't have
compassion for birth parents," says Hunsaker. About eight years ago
the family took in a pregnant teen who planned to give up the baby
for adoption. Through that experience, Hunsaker gained sympathy for
birth mothers.
He has been criticized publicly for his position and called a lackey
for the National Council for Adoption. The Council is backed by the
LDS Church and wants to make sure that no state can unseal birth
certificates to adoptees. Hunsaker bristles at the charge, saying
that the council has only provided support, nothing more. His only
responsibility is to the six anonymous birth mothers.
Hunsaker converted to the LDS faith as a teen while growing up in
Northeast Portland and Beaverton. He got a business degree from BYU
in 1964 and went on to the University of California at Berkeley's
Boalt Law School, but dropped out after his first year. That left him
open to the draft, and he ended up joining the Marines and flying
missions over Vietnam. His plane was shot down over North Vietnam,
and while he hid behind a rock for an hour, he thought hard, deciding
then to return to law school, determining to use the law to
contributed to society.
He has no objection to adoptees contacting their birth mothers, and
in fact he helped his oldest daughter contact her birth mother
through an intermediary. But he says birth mothers need a voice in
the process, "Each of my children knows if they ever want to locate
their birth parents, I will help in whatever way I can that doesn't
breach the confidentiality of the birth parent who doesn't want to
have the information exposed."
His children say they are proud of their father, a man who
studies all angles of an issue before making up his mind, who gently
chided his daughters for gossiping about others, who quizzes his
children on current events at the dinner table every night and
coaches their sports teams, who prefers a breathing bank teller over
an automated teller machine, no matter how long the line.
Hunsaker believes this is a very important issue that must be
resolved with care, "It's a once-in-a-lifetime matter, to feel so
strongly about something," he says. "I've got a personal stake in it,
if you will. That's a good feeling, to give voice to people who
didn't have it. And again, win or lose, I will feel I fought the good
fight."
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