From Modell, Judith. “Natural Bonds, Legal Boundaries: Modes of Persuasion in Adoption Rhetoric.” Imagining Adoption: Essays on Literature and Culture, edited by Marianne Novy, U of Michigan P, 2003, pp. 207–230.

In the rhetoric of the adoptee search movement, knowing one’s heritage and ethnicity contributes to the formation of an integrated identity. Linking ancestry to identity and self-fulfillment also rearranges cultural interpretations of the bonds of kinship, and this is central to the way a search solidifies an adoptee’s ties to “two families.” As Karen’s story illustrates, an emphasis on self-fulfillment removes the perceived threat that searching poses to an adoptive family. Adoptee narratives effected a reinterpretation of kinship by recognizing different levels of law. The adoption reform movement essentially demands that the historical implications of contract be incorporated into the arrangement of adoptive kinship. The demand for contact and communication is a logical extension of contracted kinship, exploiting the potential of a contract to be continually reviewed and negotiated.