Motherhood Goes Beyond Conception

According to lawyer Richard C. Gilbert, “it tortures the English language to say that a woman . . . who was never pregnant and never gave birth meets the traditional definition of the term mother (“Justices Cool to O.C. Surrogate Mother’s Case,” Feb. 3). Wake up! The family unit has changed so radically that the “traditional family” is practically nonexistent. Even Sesame Street has changed its focus from a mom-dad-two-children family to a family with other figures standing in for mom and dad, or excluding one parent altogether. Does the term traditional mother only apply to women who have had vaginal births or are stay-at-home moms?

I don’t think there are any adoptive parents who consider themselves anything but parents raising their children. Adoption is a matter of choice, as was Anna Johnson’s surrogacy pact.

I am an adoptive mother and a homemaker. I am a mother even though I wasn’t pregnant and never gave birth, and I dare you to tell me that I am anything less. The women who gave birth to my children are their birth mothers; I have been contacted by both of these women, wanting to know how my children are doing (not their children). I was considered my children’s mother before the court put its final blessing on a piece of paper. If you want to play a game of semantics, Crispina Calvert is the “traditional mother,” no matter whose womb incubated her child.

SUSAN KNIGHT

Orange