In re Interest of R.D.

R.D., now age fifty-one, was born in Iowa to parents who gave her up for adoption. The adoption records were sealed. R.D.’s adoptive family was loving and supportive, but R.D. struggles with depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse. R.D. requested that the juvenile court open her adoption records to obtain information about her biological parents for “treatment purposes.” The juvenile court denied R.D.’s petition on the grounds that R.D.’s sole purpose was to learn the identity of her biological parents. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that R.D. failed to meet her burden to overcome the statutory protection set forth in Iowa Code 600.16A(2)(d) for the confidentiality of the identity of biological parents. View "In re Interest of R.D." on Justia Law