The Swiss parliament has approved a motion to allow the biological parents of adopted children to know their identities once they become adults and give consent.
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The motion also aims to make it easier for couples to adopt children in Switzerland by reducing the required minimum age of adoptive parents as well as the amount of time they have been living together. In addition, they would not have to be married.
Currently, adopted children in Switzerland have the right to know the identities of their biological parents, but the biological parents do not have the right to find out what has become of their children.
The motion, which has been approved in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, aims to rectify anomalies relating to past practices when unmarried Swiss women were forced to relinquish their babies for adoption.
The federal government must now propose a law to the parliament which would give effect to the motion.
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Recalling the pain of forced adoption
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For the next 16 months Michèle Gillard would be in “administrative care”, her rights as a free citizen temporarily suspended. Until 1981, young people who stepped out of line could be deprived of their freedom without trial or any means of appeal. A recommendation from the guardianship authorities was often enough to seal their fate.…
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Recent figures produced by the Federal Statistics Office show a consistent decline in the number of adoptions over the past 30 years, from 1,600 in 1980 to 500 in 2009. The figures include step-parent adoptions. The pattern of adoption has changed just as the world has changed in the intervening decades. In 1980, two-thirds of…
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She was speaking at a commemorative event at Hindelbank women’s prison, canton Bern, where up until the late 1960s girls aged 14-18 were placed for “administrative care” for no other reason than a recommendation from the guardianship authorities. Although Hindelbank stopped its “re-education” policy in 1969, young people were still being deprived of their freedom…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.