Mark Diebel has been married for almost 46 years and has two sons and two grandchildren. He has been serving as an Episcopal priest in parish ministry for thirty-six years. He was reunited with his birth mother, a second-generation Japanese immigrant, in 2004 when he was 49. A year later he learned that his natural father, a Cuban doctor, was killed in a bizarre accident in Matanzas Cuba in 1970. Over the years, he has learned about both of his first parents and visited their homes in Hawaii and Cuba. As an Episcopal priest, he advocated for adoptees and donor-conceived persons to have access to their personal information and their right to know their origins and their parentage. In May 2012, he wrote an essay, Human Nature and Truthfulness in Adoption and Donor Conception Practice, for the Journal for Christian Legal Thought. He explores the relationship between Christian theology and contemporary adoption practices. He talks about his adoption experience, adoption practices in general, race, and identity in sermons. Mark is currently working with The Episcopal Church as it begins to examine its complicity in the practice of forced adoptions during the Baby Scoop Era. He is retired and living close to his grandchildren in Owensboro, Kentucky.

To skip ahead to the interview go to timestamp: 9:03

Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, by Gretchen Sisson

RESOURCES for Adoptees
S12F Helping Adoptees
Gregory Luce and Adoptees Rights Law
Joe Soll & other adoptee resources
Fireside Adoptees Facebook Group
Reckoning with the Primal Wound Documentary
Hiraeth Hope & Healing
Moses Farrow
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1-800-273-8255 OR Dial or Text 988.
NAMI Hotline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email them at [email protected]
Adoptee Therapist Directory

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