Adoption, Identity, and Kinship
Subtitle: The Debate over Sealed Birth Records
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: April 24, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9780300067590
Subjects: Child welfare; Cultural studies; Family & relationships; Adoption; Sociology - General; Family & Relationships / Adoption; Adoption And Adoption Services; Sociology; Adoptees; Birthparents; Identification; United States
Description: In this thoughtful book, sociologist Katarina Wegar offers a new perspective on adoption and the search debate, placing them within a social context. She argues that Americans who are embroiled in adoption controversies have failed to understand how much the debate, adoption research, and the experience of adoption itself are affected by persistent social beliefs that adopted children are different from and somehow inferior to children reared by their biological families.

Wegar begins by considering the historical and legal development of adoption and of sealed-records policies, showing how kinship ideology, the helping professions, and gender issues intersect to frame adoption policies and the ongoing debate.

Drawing on articles in social work and mental health journals, activist newsletters, and autobiographies by search activists, as well as on popular images of adoption portrayed in talk shows and other media, she analyzes the rhetoric to reveal the unconscious biases that exist. She concludes with a discussion of ways in which adoption reformers can avoid perpetuating harmful and confining images of those who participate in adoption.