On 30 December 2005, Section 98 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 came into force in England and Wales, giving birth relatives of adopted persons the legal right to use intermediary services to locate and attempt contact with their adopted relatives. According to the Act, birth relatives include the birth parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts of adopted persons. Section 98 also gives adopted adults the legal right to use intermediary services to locate and attempt contact with their birth relatives.

Until the early 1970s, many unmarried mothers were forced by their families to place their children for adoption against their wishes. Section 98 gives these women and their relatives the opportunity to trace their adopted family members and find out what has happened to them since the adoptions took place. It also works the other way, enabling adopted adults to locate and learn about their birth families. In both cases, the tool for tracing relatives is intermediary services.

Intermediary services can be provided by registered adoption agencies and registered adoption support agencies. Such agencies investigate the identities and locations of sought-after family members and then approach the found individuals to determine if they would like to have contact with the relatives who initiated the searches.

The first step an intermediary agency takes when it receives an application for intermediary service is to verify that both the birth relative and the adopted person are 18 years old or older. It then must obtain information about the adopted adult and the circumstances of the adoption from a variety of official sources, including the adoption agency that performed the adoption (or the agency that has the adoption records), the Registrar General, and the involved courts. Additionally, the agency must determine how the adopted adult, the adoptive parents, and any other interested parties feel about being approached by the intermediary agency (i.e., Are they interested in being found, or are they willing to establish contact with the birth relatives?).

Once it has collected all this information, the intermediary agency must record it with the appropriate adoption agency or the Registrar General's Adoption Contact Register. The Adoption Contact Register is a government resource that contains the contact information of adopted adults and birth relatives who would like to reconnect with one another. It also contains information about which specific birth relatives an adopted adult is willing to have contact with, if certain individuals are specified.

It is important to note that both an adopted adult and a birth relative must consent to being contacted for the exchange of information to occur. An intermediary agency will only release identifying information about an individual if that person has consented to such a release.

If an adopted adult does not want to be contacted by birth relatives, he or she can register a veto with the Adoption Contact Register. The adopted person also can register the veto with the appropriate adoption agency, which must keep the veto on record. This way, if an intermediary agency ever contacts the adoption agency about that adopted individual, the adoption agency can explain the conditions of the veto. A qualified veto allows an intermediary agency to approach the adopted person only on behalf of a specific birth relative or only under specific circumstances. An absolute veto, on the other hand, does not allow the intermediary agency to approach the adopted person under any circumstances. An adopted adult can modify or revoke his or her veto at any time.

Once an intermediary agency succeeds in matching a birth relative with an adopted adult, the agency acts as a liaison to exchange the information between the parties. From there, the reunited individuals can choose how they would like to proceed with their contact and possible reunion.

Individuals who were separated by adoption and later reunited through an intermediary agency may want to consider having a DNA test performed to confirm their biological relatedness. A variety of genetic tests--from maternity and paternity tests to siblingship studies and grandparentage tests--are available today to help people answer questions about their family relationships. After waiting so many years to find one another, adopted persons and their birth relatives may be able to find the peace of mind they've been looking for with the aid of intermediary services and DNA tests.