Here's a real question...does the writer remember all of these horrors brought upon the family from his own personal memory, or is he depending upon others to tell him what happened? Did his mom convince all of the children of these horrors, or did they really happen?

Changed names, moved to another coast? Why was that necessary after the birth father gave up his parental rights?

This could indeed be a case of a horrible father. It could also be a classic case of PAS (Parental Alienation Syndrome).

I have personally seen a case remarkably similar to this that turned out to be a complete falsehood. The real shame is that the daughter that had this perpetrated against her then repeated the pattern, almost like from a text book. One lie led to another and she invented an entire story with dozens of contradictions. A lie that grew and grew and the only ones hurt by this are the children and the falsely accused father.

yea it sounds like they were stories fed to him to alienate the father. Even if he did find his father (wether the stories are true or not) I doubt he'd get any true health history anyway. People as close as one generation ago covered stuff up constantly regarding health issues and causes of death, and two generations back is completely unreliable. My bio-father recently died of "cancer" and it turned out to actually be nothing more than kidney failure brought on by staph infection! His mother supposedly hid cancer from the family until just before death. I kind of doubt it was actually cancer. My mother died of the effects of M.S. and boy howdy was there a lot of under the rug sweeping surrounding that tar baby.

Besides, previous family health only reveals a chance anyway and doesn't mean squat about if you actually will reflect the same problems.

My armchair opinion being a divorce-adopted child myself and also growing up with stories about bio-dad is the real issue is he's just curious finding his bio-dad due to our culture's misplaced importance on who actually provided the sperm and egg (nature) instead of those who nurtured us. The problem however can be when those who chose to nurture us (adopted parent for example) fails in their duty and promises. Compound that with a death of the one paternal parent, remarriage, then death of the adopted leaving the child with the step-x and you have a classic Cinderella story without the happy ending.

These kids were all old enough to remember what life with Daddy was like.

No one would voluntarily throw away everything and run. It was not done on a whim.

Of course, abusive people are brilliant at covering for themselves, aren't they? It's easy to call a child a liar, and it's amazing how often the idiots will fall for that. I've run into that enough times to see how transparent it is.

Unless you lived in that house or were a fly on the wall, you have no right to an opinion.

and you want to have a child and have nothing to do with the father, save up and go to the sperm bank. What's a jar of sperm go for these days? 600 bucks? Here's an idea: stop drinking margaritas from the machine on ladies night. And while you're at it, stop falling for stories from the "independent filmmaker" who doesn't know a lens cap from his own arsehole. Lies are not good for baby or mommy-- and neither is the Yellow #3 compound in the drink you guzzle down with the other desparately lonely souls.

All I'm asking, along with a concerned society, is that when you bring another life into the world, you should, you know, try a little bit!