But the investigator reported there are scenarios that don't involve a physician.
"In 1961, if a person was born in Hawaii but not attended by a physician or midwife, then all that was required was that one of the parents send in a birth certificate to be filed. The birth certificate could be filed by mail. There appears to have been no requirement for the parent to actually physically appear before 'the local registrar of the district,'" the investigator said. He called this option BC2.
"It would have been very easy for a relative to forge an absent parent's signature to a form and mail it in. In addition, if a claim was made that 'neither parent of the newborn child whose birth is unattended as above provided is able to prepare a birthcertificate , the local registrar shall secure the necessary information from any person having knowledge of the birth and prepare and file thecertificate ,'" the report said. "I asked the Dept of Health what they currently ask for (in 2008) to back up a parent's claim that a child was born inHawaii. I was told that all they required was a proof of residence in Hawaii (e.g. a driver's license … and pre-natal (statement or report that a woman was pregnant) and post-natal (statement or report that a new-born baby has been examined) certification by aphysician . On further enquiry, the employee that I spoke to informed me that the pre-natal and post-natal certifications had probably not been in force in the '60s. Even if they had been, there is and was no requirement for aphysician or midwife to witness, state or report that the baby was born in Hawaii."
Another opportunity arises because of the law in force in 1961 in Hawaii that if a person was born in Hawaii but not attended by a physician or midwife, then, up to the first birthday of the child, a 'Delayed Certificate' could be filed, which required that 'a summary statement of the evidence submitted in support of the acceptance for delayed filing or the alteration [of a file] shall be endorsed on the certificates,' which 'evidence shall be kept in a special permanent file,'" the report said of the option called BC3.
"In other words, this form of vault birth certificate, the Delayed Certificate, required no more than a statement before a government bureaucrat by one of the parents or (the law does not seem to me clear on this) one of Barack Obama’s grandparents. If the latter is true, Ann Dunham did not have to be present for this statement or even in the country," the investigator said.
Finally, a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth is available for those born in Hawaii without attendance and for whom no Delayed Certificate was filed.
There actually was one further option, but it didn't become law until 1982, the report said. Under Act 182, "Upon application of an adult or the legal parents of a minor child, the director of health shall issue a birthcertificate for such adult or minor, provided that the proof has been submitted to the director of health that the legal parents of such individual while living without the Territory or State ofHawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child.
"In this way 'state policies and procedures' accommodate even 'children born out of State,'" the report said, noting, "This is the actual language of Act 182.
"So it is even possible that the birth certificate referred to by [state Health Department chief] Dr. [Chiyome] Fukino is of the kind specified in Act 182. This possibility cannot be dismissed because such acertificate certainly satisfies Dr. Fukino's statement that, "I as Director of Health for the State of Hawaii , along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai'i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birthcertificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures."
Such a statement could apply to any one of several of the birth certificate options in Hawaii, the report said.
"I only bring up this possibility to show how cleverly hedged and 'lawyered' and basically worthless Dr. Fukino's statement is," the investigator said.
"The fact that Obama refuses to release the vault birth certificate that would instantly clear up this matter almost certainly indicates that the vault birth certificate is probably a BC2 or possibly a BC3," the report said.
"It is also very strange that Dr. Fukino's statement in no way attested to (or even addressed the issue of) the authenticity of the 'Certification of Live Birth' (and the information that appears on it) that the Daily Kos blog and the Obama campaign posted on line," the investigator pondered.
The absence of a hospital name or physician on the vault certificate would mean Obama wasn't born in a hospital in Hawaii. A home birth also could be ruled because of other evidence, the report said.
"When someone has a home birth or is not born in a hospital, this becomes a part of his family's lore and is now and again spoken of by his parents. He and his siblings grow up knowing that he was born at home or his uncle's house, etc. The fact that someone in the campaign told a Washington Post reporter that he was born in Kapiolani hospital and his sister said he was born at Queens hospital indicates that there was not and is not any Obama/Dunham family memory of ahome birth or non-hospital birth in Hawaii," the report said. |
