-=> Quoting Steven Sterner to All <=-
 SS> I have just come up with an interesting question that I don't think
 SS> has ever been addressed in this echo.
 SS> If an adoptee happens upon information regarding a b-parent what are
 SS> the ramifications of using such information?
Good question.  It's my understanding that what can happen to the searcher
is dependant on how irritable the searchee might be.  It's not illegal (or
even immoral, maybe) to know all about someone else; problems occur because
of what the possessor of that infomration does with it.
 SS> Ok perhaps I better explain this a little better. As many of you know
 SS> I met my h-sister/b-father this past spring. Since then I have come
 SS> into my original adoption papers (I won't say 'where' I got them) and
 SS> some other identifying information regarding my b-mother. If/when I 
 SS> decide to finally use this information are there reprecusions that 
 SS> could come about from using this info?
What happens if you know your birth mother's name?  What COULD happen?
If you never contact her, nothing happens.  If you do contact her, it's
*possible* that *something* might happen...  (I know the name of
my birth mother, and contacted her; my *something* is that she refuses
to acknowledge my existance. 
In a worse-case situation, I suppose a birth parent might accuse the
searcher of stalking.  Or invasion of privacy (if there's such a thing
these days).
A way to defuse any situation is to have a third party do the actual contact,
and that third party should assure the birth parent that the adoptee does
not know the whereabouts of the birth parent.  The birth parent will be 
more secure, I should think, and will be less likely to reject the whole
event (but this approach didn't work for me).
  
... The next time, I'll bite harder.
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