ABSTRACT
The current American context is one in which most believe the available choices and technologies exist for creating a perfectly normal baby. For the public, new technologies such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, gestational surrogacy, selective embryo reduction, egg donation, sperm sorting, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and a range of other prenatal testing technologies have both raised the ethically ambiguous specter of “designer” babies and greatly complicated the term mother in North American culture. If babies can ensue from technological and legal interventions independent of heterosexual intercourse, what should be the defining criteria of “real” motherhood? Should we prioritize the contribution of genetic material, the provision of the womb that carries the fetus and from which the baby is delivered, or nurturance of a child after it is born? Each of these components of motherhood may now be fulfilled by a different individual; new technologies and social arrangements allow for a broad array of maternal claims.
