The Consequences of Adoption

I receive health tips in my email a couple times a week from RealAge.com. These tips are usually quite helpful, and quick to read.

Today I received this tip about weight. In a nutshell, the tip encourages people to pull out old family photos and compare how their ancestors looked at the same age and their own current weight. I really like this idea - it's a nice baseline to have when contemplating our own weight.

But, this is another one of those health-related benefits that knowing about my birth family would give me.

I was adopted the day I was born, and I have no real desire to meet my birth mother. She's not my mother, and while I hold no contempt for her, I really just have nothing to say - we're not connected.

However, I would really like to know my genetic history. Fortunately, the technology now exists for me to get a full genetic profile of proclivities for certain diseases. Unfortunately, this knowledge might also limit my future elligibility for healthcare, so I will probably not utilize it any time soon.

If I ever go in search of my birth mother, it will be to find answers to health questions, nothing else.*

*My mother did tell me a few years ago that my birth mother gave up two babies prior to giving me up. I do have the curiosity to find them - it's a different case with them.