Immaculate Conceptions

'Immaculate Conceptions' tells intimate stories about people who have refused to be beaten by infertility. We live in an age of unparalleled reproductive options. Most people in developed countries consider it their right to have as many or as few children, as and when they wish. It's becoming commonplace to see men and women - coupled, single, straight and gay - creating families in ways that not so long ago were the stuff of science fiction.

Young women now defy their biological clocks by freezing their ova for possible future use. Infertile women and gay men from across the globe shop on the Internet for egg donors or surrogate mothers. Michael Jackson nervously jiggles his third surrogate baby on his knee as he publicly announces his plan to adopt two children from every continent.

'Immaculate Conceptions' does not moralise about the various forms of family-making it describes - readers can make up their own minds. Jill Singer simply shares some of the myriad stories told to her by people endeavouring to create families via non-traditional means: how they exercise their particular reproductive choices within their own social and economic context; their joys, their sorrow, their moral quandaries - and their often extraordinary tenacity.