“For medical purposes I am her mother,” says Jennifer Williams, “But I am also her aunt.” Ms Williams son is also his cousin’s half-brother. This is how composite families have changed the notion of who gets a branch on the family tree.
Laura Ashmore and Jennifer Williams are sisters. After that, their relationship becomes more complex. When Ms. Ashmore and her husband learned a few years ago that they could not conceive a child, Ms. Williams stepped in and offered to become pregnant with a donor sperm on behalf of the couple, and give birth to the child. The baby, Mallory, was born in September 2007 and adopted by Ms. Ashmore and her husband.
Ms. Williams, who has a lesbian partner, had a biological child, Jamison, who was conceived through a sperm donor, too. And the sisters wondered how to describe the relationship between Mallory and Jamison.
“Mallory is my daughter and Jennifer is her aunt,” said Ms. Ashmore. At home, Jamison sometimes refers to Mallory as his sister. But at school, said Ms. Williams, “she’s his cousin.” The sperm donors, they agreed, had no place on the family tree.
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Laura M. Holson is an award-winning reporter who currently writes about communications, media and the mobile lifestyle from New York. nbsp