Things They Should Invent: anonymous medical history updates for adoptees

I have a family medical history of cancer and Alzheimer's. When I was born, we didn't know this yet because the diseases had not yet manifested themselves in the people who ended up getting them. So if I'd been adopted, even if my birth parents had provided a complete medical history at the time of my birth, I wouldn't have this information.

The Alzheimer's is a very recent development. If I'd had a baby sometime before the age of 30 and put it up for adoption, I would not have been able to provide this information because we didn't know it yet. And the kid would grow up thinking she has no family history of Alzheimer's, because she'd have received a medical history and it didn't include Alzheimer's.

It also occurs to me (I have no data, but it seems logical) that birth mothers of adoptees might tend to be younger than mothers who keep their babies. While some people always want to be parents and some people (like me) never want to be parents, there are people who are not ready to be parents when they're younger but then become ready for it when they're older. This seems like it would skew the adoptee birth mother age a bit younger, which would also mean their parents and grandparents are younger, and therefore less likely to have developed all the serious medical conditions that they eventually will. Even if all adoptees are given all medical history information available at birth, they won't have all the information they need. And, if they have some information, they're likely to think their medical history is healthier than it actually is because it doesn't include many things, when in reality it's just a matter of their biological grandparents still having been alive and healthy at the time they were born.

Solution: a system whereby birth parents in closed adoptions can report updates in family medical history to a central database, and this information gets anonymously communicated to the child. This will give adoptees a more accurate idea of their family medical history without compromising anonymity, and allow them to make fully-informed decisions about their medical care and their own family planning.