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This book collates and examines current law and policies on the right to genetic ancestry, arguing that the right to identity often rests upon the ability to identify biological ancestors.

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This text collates and examines the jurisprudence that currently exists in respect of blood-tied genetic connection, arguing that the right to identity often rests upon the ability to identify biological ancestors, which in turn requires an absence of adult-centric veto norms. It looks firstly to the nature and purpose of the blood-tie as a unique item of birthright heritage, whose socio-cultural value perhaps lies mainly in preventing, or perhaps engendering, a feared or revered sense of ´otherness.´ It then traces the evolution of the various policies on ´telling´ and accessing truth, tying these to the diverse body of psychological theories on the need for unbroken attachments and the harms of being origin deprived. The ´law´ of the blood-tie comprises of several overlapping and sometimes conflicting strands: the international law provisions and UNCRC Country Reports on the child´s right to identity, recent Strasbourg case law, and domestic case law from a number of jurisdictions on issues such as legal parentage, vetoes on post-adoption contact, court-delegated decision-making, overturned placements and the best interests of the relinquished child. The text also suggests a means of preventing the discriminatory effects of denied ancestry, calling upon domestic jurists, legislators, policy-makers and parents to be mindful of the long-term effects of genetic ´kinlessness´ upon origin deprived persons, especially where they have been tasked with protecting this vulnerable section of the population.

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Introduction.- The Blood-tie as Socio-cultural ´Item´: Ancestry Feared and Revered.- The Blood-tie: ´Properly Locked Drawers´ and a ´Doomed Quality´.- Conceptualizing the "Right" to Avoid Origin Deprivation: International Law and Domestic Implementation.- Strasbourg Jurisprudence: ´Remembered Relatedness´.- Never Knowing ´One´s Past´: Genetic Ancestry Vetoes as Discrimination?.- ´Related´ Matters in an Open Records Region: Relinquishment, Contact and Best Interests.- Blood-tie Preservation as Paramount: Best Interests of Child Outweighed?.- Guiding Principles, Hard Cases.- Conclusion: Preventing Origin Deprivation.

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