10.   The loss of a biological mother cannot be overcome or replaced simply through the act of adoption any more than say an adolescent who loses a parent or an adult who loses a spouse can simply move on to another relationship as if suffering no loss. There must be validation of feelings and mourning for healing and growth.

11.   There are a number of social conventions that serve to exacerbate the injury caused by the loss of the biological family. Author and psychologist Dr. Betty Jean Lifton describes these in her work, Journey of the Adopted Self A Quest for Wholeness (New York: Basic Books, 1994). A copy of Dr. Lifton's work is attached as exhibit "C" to my affidavit.

12.   Dr. Lifton describes the process as a "cumulative adoption trauma", which "begins when they are separated from the mother at birth; builds when they learn that they are not born to the people they call mother and father; and is further compounded when they are denied knowledge of the mother and father to whom they were born" (at page 7). Dr. Lifton adds that even well-functioning adopted persons suffer from the unmet, often unacknowledged need to know their birth parents as well as from the experience of growing up deprived of vital elements of their identity. In essence, virtually all adopted persons "struggle with issues pertaining to self-esteem, lack of trust and fear of abandonment" (at page 93).

13.   In some societies, social conventions and legislation serve to perpetuate the trauma and increase risk factors in adoption. This is particularly so where the child's birth identity is denied and the myth is created that a child is born from his or her adoptive parents. Such children are raised in an environment of secrets, lies and dishonesty.