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An adoption where the adoptive and birth parents do not become aware of each others' identities and where only medical and historical information is given to the adoptive parents is known as a Closed Adoption . Although open adoptions are thought to be a relatively new phenomenon, in fact most adoptions in the United States were open until the twentieth century. Until the 1930's, most adoptive parents and birth parents had contact at least during the adoption process.Adamec & Pierce, 1991 In many cases, adoption was seen as a social support: young children were adopted out not only to help their parents (by reducing the number of children they had to support) but also to help another family by providing an apprentice. Adoptions became closed when social pressures mandated that families preserve the myth that they were formed biologically. One researcher has referred to these families, that made every attempt to match the child physically to their adoptive families 'as if' families.Yngvesson, 1997 Openness became the norm when infants available for adoption became scarce, and birth parents had the ability to negotiate acceptable terms for their children, including the ability to participate in decisions about who they wanted to parent their child. Proponents of open adoption maintain that such adoptions are better for the child and represent best practice. Increasingly, as children growing up in open adoptive homes are studied, adoption researchers are finding that this might be a preferable adoption arrangement.Doherty 2000; Grotevant & McRoy, 1997; Mendenhall, Berge, Wrobel, Grotevant & McRoy, 1997; Silverstein & Roszia, 1999; Berry, 1991; Berry, Dylla, Barth & Needell, 1998; Grotevant, McRoy, Elde & Fravel, 1994 Civil rights advocates argue that openness is the right of all children, who are entitled to information about their history and heritage. One important fact related to openness is that open adoptions are ''not'' legally enforceable agreements in many jurisdictions {Link without Title} . The adoptive parents may terminate all contact with the birth parent(s) at any time and for any reason. SEE ALSO
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