[lisasp1983]

I am an adoptee that was born in Port washington Wi at st. alphonsus hospital. I really need to find my biological parents so i can get my medical history. I am having alot of health problems right now and I don't have any history that i can tell the dr.s. E-mail me at lisasp1983@yahoo.com if anyone out there knows anything!

[Dickons]

You can ask your doctor to write a note stating he/she needs family history to deal with your health issues. Take the note and go to the court house in the county of your adoption (or get a fax number and the form) and fill out the petition to release your closed records.

It depends on the judge and the reason but they may open the file for you to access or perhaps assist by trying to contact your birth family.

Medical history does not stay static so if they only want to give you the info from your file it probably will not help for the following reasons...

a) young people (i.e. birth parents) are rarely aware of the health issues of the family,
b) medical science has evolved since you were born and the list of conditions that are hereditary is so much longer and more complex that what was thought 20, 30 years ago,
c) some hereditary diseases skip generations,
d) some hereditary diseases don't present till middle age or greater,
e) you have more relatives since your birth that could provide clues,
f) some diseases your relatives may have had may have been misdiagnosed due to lack of knowledge back then.

Kind regards,
Dickons