Ireland will allow adopted people automatic access to their birth records for the first time under new laws the government hopes will end a "historic wrong," including for thousands sent for adoption in secret by Catholic institutions.
International laws say all children should be able to establish their identity but tens of thousands of adopted people in Ireland have no automatic right to their birth records or access to tracing services.
The legislation was published a year to the day since an inquiry found that thousands of infants died in Irish homes for unmarried mothers and their offspring mostly run by the Catholic Church from the 1920s to the 1990s.
Many infants were also taken from mothers and sent overseas to be adopted, that report, the latest in a series that have laid bare some of the Church's worst abuses, found.
Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman said the new law, if enacted, would provide for the full and unredacted release of birth, early life and medical information to anyone over the age of 16, regardless of their parents' wishes.
"We know that a historic wrong has been done to adopted people. With this bill, we are restoring the information so many of us take for granted as part of our own, personal stories," O'Gorman said, seeking to end Ireland's "outlier status."
Successive governments had argued that a 1998 Supreme Court ruling prevented them from opening adoption files because it emphasized the mother's right to privacy. A 2019 bill to improve access to records was scrapped after opposition in parliament and from advocacy groups.
Opposition parties broadly welcomed the new bill but criticized the fact that adopted people would still have to hold an "information session" with officials by phone where a parent has expressed a no-contact preference. An earlier version of the bill specified a mandatory meeting with a social worker.
Some campaigners also said the level of information the bill proposed was still insufficient and that the sources where the data can be collected from must be expanded to include all agencies and institutions.
Luis Armando Albino was six years old in 1951 when he was abducted while playing at an Oakland, Calif., park. Now, more than seven decades later, Albino has been found thanks to help from an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings.
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Kate, the Princess of Wales, made her first public appearance Sunday since she announced she had completed chemotherapy and would return to some public duties.
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The City of Calgary ended water restrictions for the city at a Sunday morning update.
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Pasquale Monaco says he’s debating whether to keep renting out the two-bedroom basement apartment of the Montreal building he owns after it was flooded — again — in August, when the remnants of tropical storm Debby sent four feet of water rushing into the space.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson avoided directly weighing in during a gubernatorial campaign event Saturday on a CNN report outlining evidence that he made disturbing posts on a pornography website's message board more than a decade ago.
An explosion in a coal mine in eastern Iran killed at least 33 workers and injured 17 others, officials said Sunday, marking one of the worst mining disasters in the country's history as others remained missing hours after the blast.
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In less than two months, Americans will go to the polls to choose their next president. But the process that translates those millions of votes into one seat in the Oval Office is much more complicated than a straight tally.
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At least two students at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania have been suspended from the swim team after a report that a racial slur was scratched onto a student's body, officials said.
The prime minister's official itinerary says the interview will be shot during his trip to New York, where he is meeting with other world leaders ahead of the 78th gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.
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Body mass index, a long-time tool used to measure a person's health, may soon be out the door as some health professionals push for a system they say is more accurate.
Infectious disease physician Dr. Isaac Bogoch says whooping cough is most risky for unvaccinated infants, children and older people.
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The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy.
Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have a nickname for the opposition’s end zone. They refer to it as the “chicken box.â€
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The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
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Â鶹´«Ã½ Montreal at Six for Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 with anchor Matt Gilmour.
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A Victoria woman is now $1 million richer after winning a Maxmillions prize on a recent Lotto Max Draw.
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Despite the heavy rain, plenty of muscle turned up for United Way’s annual Pull the Bus fundraiser in Lethbridge Friday.
Lethbridge County has rescinded its fire restriction as a result of the recent cool, wet weathr.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes kicked off the 2024-25 season on a winning note Friday night, defeating the Edmonton Oil Kings 3-1 in a game played at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.
The Royal Canadian Mint has introduced its latest Gold Maple Leaf bullion coin – made entirely from gold sourced from a single mine in northern Ontario
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Newfoundland and Labrador sponsored a minor football team in England, now they’re about to play one of the biggest clubs in European soccer.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
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