In our continuing effort to repair the damage to public education done by birthers, I want to talk about “unique identifiers” and birth certificates as identity documents.
In a recent article Margaret Hemenway (spokesperson for Terry Lakin and daughter of the sanctioned attorney in the Hollister v Soetoro case) on the Accuracy [sic] in Media article entitled: How the Media Lied about Obama’s Birth Records wrote:
Most people consider a birth certificate as a state or hospital document containing a statement by a hospital and physician, or midwife, with a footprint or other unique identifiers.
Part of that is true. Birth certificates, which certify facts of birth, are based on information collected from various sources including someone who witnessed the birth, most often a doctor. However, most information on the birth certificate usually comes form the mother, specifically the child’s name, the parents’ names and address and social security numbers if present. The attendant adds the date, time and place of birth and the fact that the child was born alive. Most modern certificates omit the hospital name and that of the doctor when they are printed for the public. None have a statement “by a hospital” as hospitals to not talk. (more…)

In an article in the Yale Law Journal from June 2009, titled: 


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