Immaculate Conceptions: Thoughts On Breeding, Babies And Boundaries

How far would you go to have a child?

We live in an age of unprecedented reproductive options. People in Western countries now believe they have a right to have children, by fair means or foul. It’s commonplace to see men and women-couples, single, straight and gay creating families in ways that not so long ago were the stuff of science fiction. In Immaculate Conceptions, Jill Singer explores the bewildering array of choices now available to those determined to have children.
Singer shares intimate stories told to her by people endeavouring to create families via non-traditional means: the choices they make, their joys, their sorrows, their ethical quandaries- and their often extraordinary tenacity.

She introduces us to a fascinating array of individuals, from a struggling British housewife who makes money by breeding baby after baby for sometimes callous strangers, to a young Adelaide cancer survivor who has discovered the indescribable joy of motherhood after losing her uterus and gaining a new best friend–the American surrogate she met online.

These stories bear witness to an instinct that is as old as humanity itself-the often-overwhelming desire to have a child.