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

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 relatives, and family health history remains so important.

On This Episode, We Discuss:

• How Gabrielle met David while reporting on his kidney transplant
• How DNA testing connected David with his biological family
• What David discovered about his birth parents’ efforts to keep him
• How sealed adoption records restrict access to identity and family medical history
• Stigma, coercion, and secrecy in postwar American adoption
• Unethical research conducted on infants awaiting adoption
• The emotional complexity of unexpected biological connections and family reunions
• Privacy concerns surrounding commercial DNA databases
• Support resources for adoptees and others navigating DNA discoveries
• Margaret’s journey from decades of secrecy to adoptee-rights advocacy

About Gabrielle Glaser

Gabrielle Glaser is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist whose work on mental health, medicine, addiction, and culture has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, and many other publications.

Her fourth book, American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption, examines the history of adoption in post–World War II America through the story of one family separated by the country’s secretive and coercive adoption system.

Learn more about Gabrielle and her work on her website.

About Brianne Kirkpatrick Williams

Brianne Kirkpatrick Williams is a licensed and certified genetic counselor, genealogist, author, and the founder of Watershed DNA. She provides support and guidance for people navigating DNA testing, family searches, adoption, donor conception, misattributed parentage, and unexpected biological relationships. Brianne is also the co-author, with Shannon Combs-Bennett, of The DNA Guide for Adoptees.

About DNA Clarity and Support

DNA Clarity and Support explores the personal and familial impacts of DNA testing. Brianne speaks with authors, advocates, and leaders about family searches, unexpected discoveries, identity, medical history, and the resources available to people navigating the rapidly changing world of consumer DNA testing.

DNA Clarity and Support is produced by Watershed DNA and is part of the Gene Pool Media podcast network. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Resources

• Gabrielle Glaser
• American Baby by Gabrielle Glaser
• The DNA Guide for Adoptees by Brianne Kirkpatrick Williams and Shannon Combs-Bennett
• Watershed DNA
• Adoptee Rights Law Center
• Liberty Lost Podcast
• DNA Clarity and Support Podcast
• Current map of adoptee access to original birth certificates

Editor’s note: This conversation was originally recorded in 2022. Laws governing adoptee access to original birth certificates have continued to change since then.

As of July 2026, according to the Adoptee Rights Law Center, adult adopted people in seventeen states currently have an unrestricted right to obtain copies of their own pre-adoption original birth records without discriminatory restrictions. These maps categorize US states into three primary groups: Unrestricted, Compromised, and Restricted, with definitions and numbers below. A list of states and restrictions is also available, as well as a changelog to the map over time.

Relevant DNA Today Episodes

• #103 Brianne Kirkpatrick on Adoptee Genetic Testing
• #139 Dani Shapiro on Her Donor-Conceived Discovery
• #242 Misattributed Paternity with Richard Wenzel
• #300 Netflix’s The Man With 1,000 Kids: Fertility Fraud Expert Eve Wiley and Advocate Laura
• #131 Libby Copeland on Law Enforcement Use of Genetic Databases

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