A man who discovered his biological father’s name through DNA testing has inspired a new process for adding a parent’s name to an Iowa birth certificate.
A new state law will let adults apply for a birth certificate that includes the name of a biological parent if that name was omitted from the original document. During House debate this spring, Representative Brian Lohse of Bondurant explained a former Iowan who was adopted found a brother in Iowa through a DNA testing app.
“Also through that testing he found his biological father,” Lohse said. “The law we passed a couple of years ago allows an adopted person to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate. When he did that, he discovered the only name on the birth certificate was the name of his biological mother. This bill was introduced to give him and others like him the ability to add that missing information onto their original birth certificate.”
Senator David Rowley of Spirit Lake discussed the bill on the Senate floor just before it passed unanimously this spring.
“We live in a time where we can discover through DNA samples our heritage, our ancestry, our countries of origin…Through this process there are adopted adult children that have discovered their biological parents and rekindled close relationships with that parent,” Rowley said. “Through this process with all parties in agreement, the adopted child, now an adult ,will have this document, a reestablished birth certificate, as proof of their biological parent-child relationship for generations to come.”
According to the CEO of Ancestry, one of the companies that sells D-N-A test kits, about 30 million people around the world have taken a DNA test.