• Selected
• Entire List

Abstract:
This chapter will first demonstrate that in the United States, England and New Zealand, adoption records were open during the first half of the twentieth century or, if sealed, that a majority of adopted adults were able to access them fairly easily; and second, reveal when, why and how adoption records came to be sealed.

adoption, adoption records, adopted adults, birth parents, adoptive parents

Abstract:
This study provides an international history of the adoption reform movement in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia from 1953 to 2007. It empirically tests how safe birth parents and adopted adults are in countries that have opened their adoption records, usually birth registration records, using preference forms and contact vetoes. The results of this investigation reveal that a vast gap exists between the fear by birth parents and adopted adults that their privacy will be invaded and their family disrupted and the reality that few or no offenses are committed. It follows that opening adoption records with contact preference forms or contact vetoes provides a balanced adoption disclosure system and is a viable alternative to the sealed adoption policies currently used in the vast majority of American states and Canadian provinces.

Adoption, adoption records, search, birth parents, birth mothers, adoptive parents

Abstract:
This article is the first historical, longitudinal statistical study of adoption triad members - birth parents, adoptees, and adoptive parent - and of adoption agencies' policies, which uses the confidential case records of an adoption agency. By sampling one out of every ten case records of the Children's Home Society of Washington's 21,500 case records from 1895 to 1973, this essay hopes to fill this gap in our knowledge of adoption agencies' constituencies and practices, with preliminary findings that can be tested by future historical studies of adoption agencies. Another goal of this essay is to use statistical data to test the thesis that World War II marked a third watershed in the history of adoption, following the Massachusetts Adoption Act of 1851 and the beginnings of adoption reform and the sentimentalization of adoption during the Progressive era.