S1 E10 Unraveling Renee - This episode is about truth-telling, family preservation, and what happens when we finally look critically at systems built on silence. Renee speaks candidly about the emotional toll of relinquishment, the lifelong consequences of secrecy, and the uncomfortable truths many would rather avoid. Her story challenges the dominant narrative of adoption as a simple good and asks listeners to confront the ethical, legal, and human realities beneath it.

Renee’s unraveling didn’t begin with a DNA test. It began with an unplanned pregnancy, a vulnerable moment in a new relationship, and a series of pressures that led to the unnecessary adoption of her child. What followed wasn’t closure—it was awakening. As Renee began to understand what had happened to her, she found her purpose: questioning an industry that too often operates behind rose-colored narratives and without critical scrutiny.

In this episode, Kara and Renee unpack the realities of infant adoption in the United States and the ways crisis, misinformation, and power imbalances shape irreversible outcomes for mothers, fathers, and children alike.

SHOW NOTES

In this conversation, Kara and Renee discuss:

• How a crisis pregnancy can rapidly spiral into adoption without informed consent
• The differences between foster adoption and infant adoption, and why that distinction matters
• The pressure tactics used by adoption entities during moments of vulnerability
• Why maternal separation is a trauma for both mother and child
• The commodification of infants and the supply-and-demand reality of adoption
• How unmarried fathers can lose parental rights without ever knowing
• The myth of “saving a baby” and what families actually need instead
• Open adoption myths versus lived realities
• Sealed birth certificates, identity loss, and the long-term impact on adoptees
• Why DNA, identity, and family connection cannot be erased by paperwork

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.