Nowadays, most adoptions are carried out through adoption agencies that are licensed and legitimized by the court system. For this reason, the majority of adoptions are conducted in the best interests of the child after a series of interviews/inspections of the prospective parents' home have been completed. During the Roman Empire, families were known to adopt children to meet their own selfish needs. According to Infoplease.com, wealthy families who did not have a son often adopted a teenager in order to keep their family name intact. Due to children being wrongly adopted in this manner, adoption fees and standards continue to rise in an attempt to minimize this outcome in this day and age. Due to the glut of orphaned children due to war and poverty after the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church began encouraging adoption in an attempt to place some of these abandoned children in loving homes. Without the influence of the Catholic Church during this period, the concept of adoption could not have developed and flourished as it has over time and up to the present day.