TY - GEN T1 - Adoption, identity, and kinship : the debate over sealed birth records A1 - Wegar, Katarina LA - English PP - New Haven Conn. PB - Yale University Press YR - 1997 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_eba_ocm47011384 AB - 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. OP - 169 CN - HV875.55 .W44 1997eb SN - 0585349991 SN - 9780585349992 SN - 9780300146387 SN - 0300146388 SN - 9780300067590 SN - 0300067593 KW - Adoption : United States. KW - Birthparents : United States : Identification. KW - Adoptees : United States : Identification. KW - Confidential communications : United States. KW - Registers of births, etc. : United States. KW - Adoption : États-Unis. KW - Parents naturels : États-Unis : Identification. KW - Adoptés : États-Unis : Identification. KW - Secret professionnel : États-Unis. KW - FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS : Adoption & Fostering. KW - SOCIAL SCIENCE : Sociology : General. KW - Adoptees : Identification KW - Adoption KW - Birthparents : Identification KW - Confidential communications KW - Registers of births, etc. KW - United States KW - Field guides ER -