ABSTRACT
As I think of him, I first met Josh when he arrived in my office with Vicki in what appeared to be a green oxygen tank filled with frozen sperm, packed in dry ice. Vicki, my patient, inseminated her partner Margaret that afternoon. Josh was born nine months later. He is now seven years old and plays the cello. He has a baby brother, Andrew, who has the same donor, but who was birthed by Vicki. Each boy has two moms, but in some ways Josh is Margaret's and Andrew is Vicki's—not necessarily in the minds of the boys, but in the minds of the moms. In relation to her nonbiological son, each has trouble feeling that she is the “real mom.”
