If you created your family like I did, using an unknown sperm donor, what do you do if your child one day says she or he wants to contact him? The authors of a new book for donor-conceived people and their families offer some helpful hints.
There’s a recent AP news story going around about a “new twist” on baby making for two-mom couples. Thing is, it’s not so new — it’s the method my spouse and I used 11 years ago to start our family, with her carrying an embryo made from my egg and donor sperm. It seemed doubly appropriate to mention it again today because we started our family in New Jersey — and as of yesterday, same-sex couples in New Jersey can legally wed. We’re happy to be celebrating as former New Jerseyans.
Despite that whole Prop 8 thing, California continues to be a leader in legal protections for LGBT families.
Robert Edwards, one of the pioneers of in vitro fertilization—the procedure to which my spouse Helen and I owe our child—has died at the age of 87. I learned of his death via a lovely eulogic article by Elizabeth Comeau, the first “test-tube baby” born in the United States (in 1981). (Louise Brown of the U.K. was the first in the world, born in 1978.)
An article for CNN yesterday ran the headline “Science led to gay families: Law should follow.” I’m the last person to argue that our families shouldn’t have equal legal rights—but the headline is overstating science’s role and inadvertently perpetuating a dangerous myth about same-sex parents. The article’s author, Debora L. Spar, is president of Barnard
One in an occasional series of Lego lesbian mom tableaus. Have a funny cryo tank story? (I know some of you do.) Leave a comment or a link to your post about it!
Gina Trapani is best known as the founder of the Lifehacker blog, but also began a much more personal venture this year—her own family. She wrote recently about her and her wife’s path to parenthood in “How to Make a Baby” for The Magazine. When a piece begins, “Choosing a sperm donor is a little bit like setting up an Xbox avatar,” you know it’s worth a read.
New mom A wrote this week at Two Mothers McGill about her “Non-Biological Perspective” before, during, and after the birth of her daughter with partner T. She gives voices to feelings I’ve heard from many nonbio moms—worrying if she will bond with their child, being hurt by others’ comments about how much the baby is like her partner, thinking about when their daughter will someday meet her donor. Even if you’ve experienced or read about similar sentiments before, however, you should go read her post for the eloquence with which she expresses them.
Aleia Mims’ “Lessons from Infertility,” part of her “Authentically Me” series at her blog l.i.b.e.r.a.t.i.o.n. theory, is this week’s Post of the Week. She writes about her journey from comfort with not being a bio mom, to wanting to conceive with her wife, to her disappointment at not being able to do so.
Please welcome to the blogosphere Charlotte and Betsy, who recently launched one of the best-titled blogs I’ve seen in a while: Turkey Baster and Bottle of Wine. Their subtitle clarifies: “On being a queer, non-gestational parent.”
