#409 How DNA Testing Exposed the Dark History of American Adoption

About this episode

What happens when stigma, secrecy, and institutional power separate a mother from her child, and prevent an adoptee from accessing his own identity and medical history for decades? This week, we are sharing an episode of DNA Clarity and Support, the newest podcast to join the Gene Pool Media network. Host and genetic counselor Brianne Kirkpatrick Williams speaks with New York Times bestselling author and journalist Gabrielle Glaser about her book, American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption. American Baby follows Margaret Erle Katz, who became pregnant as a teenager in 1961, and the son she was pressured to relinquish for adoption. That child, later named David Rosenberg, grew up without access to his biological family or family medical history. Decades later, while experiencing serious health problems, David used direct-to-consumer DNA testing to identify his birth family and discovered that the story he had believed about his adoption was not true. Through David and Margaret’s experiences, Gabrielle exposes the coercion, secrecy, and stigma that shaped the postwar adoption industry, and explores why access to original birth records, genetic relative