REVERE, Mass. — A Revere woman will speak in front of Massachusetts lawmakers Tuesday to advocate for a bill for adults who have been adopted and have no access to their biological family's medical history.
One woman has been fighting for this bill to become a new law. Patricia Casoli has been on her own journey for decades to find her biological family members and to find out important family medical history. She was lucky enough to do so.
Casoli has made it her mission to pass Patricia and Francesca's Law, a bill that would require parents seeking to give their child up for adoption to provide anonymous family medical history. She says it's invaluable information that could alert doctors of potential health risks.
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"At least if you had something in your medical record that was left through a family member, even if it was a mother, father, sister, brother, cousin up to a second degree, there would be something to base that on," Casoli said. "You would have something to put in your file and go off on, 'okay so cancer runs in this family, let’s test her for whatever it may be.'"
Casoli has been working on this bill for several years. After going on a reality show to find her biological sister, she learned she had a family history of both breast and lung cancer.
"Without the DNA testing, without pushing, fighting and just relentless going after the research, I would have never known any of this," she said.
She's hoping her bill becomes a law, giving adoptees over the age of 18 access to family medical information so they can get ahead of treatments and testing.
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"Without that, the insurance is not going to pay for it," Casoli said. "They're not going to ask you about it, and your doctor would have no idea to even ask you that if you're a completely healthy person going into the doctor's office."
The bill is backed by Representative Roselee Vincent who told Boston 25 News, "I am proud to sponsor this bill because I believe this would help adoptees know and understand their medical predispositions, which is information that I feel each individual is entitled to."
Casoli will be speaking Tuesday morning in front of Massachusetts lawmakers. She's hoping her story along with testimonies from others she has received will push the bill along