Patrick was adopted illegally: 'You lack ownership of your identity'

Patrick Noordoven was illegally adopted as a Brazilian baby in 1980. Using false witnesses, his adoptive parents in Brazil and the Netherlands registered the birth of their 'own child'. When Patrick found out about this, he felt cheated. "You lack ownership of your identity because you don't know what happened to you," he says in the NPO Radio 1 podcast Het Onderzoeksbureau . Since then, he has been fighting to make sure this doesn't happen to other adopted children.

As part of that battle, Patrick is taking his adoptive parents to court in 2017. For years they withheld information about his illegal adoption, which only complicated the search for his biological family, and with it his own identity. “I knew almost nothing other than that I was born in São Paulo in 1980, around February,” he says.

And that lack of important information causes a lot of pain. “That goes hand in hand with a lot of emotion,” says Patrick. “Every adoptee experiences that differently, but I think 'being bitter' is a general term that is appropriate.”

Because of everything he went through, Patrick started studying law. He gives lectures and has founded an NGO for victims of adoption. He is aware that what he has been through can still happen and is still happening.

Mandatory and verifiable birth certificate

For that reason, Patrick believes that a birth certificate should only be issued on the basis of a child's biological data. For example, he wants several witness statements to be submitted showing that a mother has been pregnant and that birth has taken place. He also wants DNA collection in at least mother and baby to be discussed after birth. “That's not happening right now, and no one has committed to that at any level until now. Unlike a single activist like me, and I hope that changes now.”

The Fiom Foundation, Defense for Children and the former UN special rapporteur on child trafficking Maud de Boer-Buquicchio also want to commit themselves to this, they report to the WNL podcast. The authorities state that the current form of birth registration leaves the door wide open for illegal adoption. They advocate a mandatory and verifiable, uniform birth certificate or a direct line between the registry office and hospital or midwives. SP MP Michiel van Nispen has submitted parliamentary questions about this.

“It is time to pay attention to the right to birth registration. And the right to identity. That a birth certificate may only contain truthful information," Patrick emphasizes. “A birth declaration should only be made on the basis of verifiable documents that cannot simply be falsified.”

'Think I know what it's like to feel at home'

After ten years of searching, Patrick found out that his biological mother had already died, but he got to know the family around it. This made him realize all the more how important that is to him. “It's a huge burden off you,” he says, Patrick, who believes that identity issues can be more limited if children know who their biological parents are. “And I'm convinced that legislation plays a role in that,” he says.

“If I can establish my father's identity, I think maybe I can feel a little more like almost all other people who have not been adopted, whose identity has not been taken away,” Patrick says. “I think I know a little better what it's like to feel at home. With family, your own origin, to be sure about that. I am very curious how that will feel.”

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