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Tom Callan, KSL Newsradio A woman who put her baby up for adoption 28 years ago recently learned that the child died when she was just six months old.
Now according to a Salt Lake Tribune report, she is demanding changes in Utah law so a birth mother would be told if the baby she puts up for adoption dies.
The director of the Utah Division of Child and Family Services agrees that Utah adoptions should be less mysterious and more open. "I think it's important for children to maintain some ties to their biological family, particularly as they get older," Dwayne Betournay explained.
But Betournay says current law mandates that a contract must be signed if a birth mother and adoptive parents want to share information. But some don't. "Sometimes adoptive parents don't want anything to do with the biological parent. And in turn, the biological parents don't want anything to do with the [adoptive] families," he said.
Betournay says he doesn't know anyone in the legislature proposing changes.
