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Single Mothers by Choice

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Maybe this was inevitable. First the "Leave it to Beaver" American family portrait gets torn up by divorce. Single moms prove they can do it alone if they have to. Then men and women reassess each other through the lens of women's rights. And genetic science makes artificial everything possible.

Now, a growing number of women who want to have babies but don't have husbands are just skipping the men and dialing up the sperm bank. They're giving up on romance and relationships, and reaching for a catalog of donors. How is this so different, they ask, from single parenthood post-divorce?

Hear about mail-order motherhood, and women having babies, by choice, without men.

Guests:

Jennifer Egan, a writer for the New York Times

Denise Feinsod, a 'single mother by choice'

Dr. Kathleen Gerson, Professor of Sociology at New York University, author of the forthcoming "Children of the Gender Revolution" and "Work, Family and Gender Inequality," and member of the Council on Contemporary Families

Wendy Kramer, Founder, Donor Sibling Registry.

This program aired on March 17, 2006.

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