The single-mother ghost-father family: Perspectives of single women choosing posthumous reproduction, a preliminary study

Abstract

A novel family created by the confluence of single motherhood by choice and posthumous reproduction, one we term – a Single Mother Ghost Father family, may become a commonly available reproductive route in Israel under a recently submitted bill. This is the first empirical research looking at this now-rare family structure from within. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 9 single women who chose to establish a Single Mother Ghost Father family, this preliminary study chronicles their journey from the nuclear family they had initially envisioned to the Single Mother Ghost Father family they decided to establish, explores what motivated them, and conceptualizes different notions of family, motherhood, and fatherhood. The findings demonstrate that constructing this family not only allows the mothers to display the appearance of a normative nuclear family, without explicitly challenging traditional patriarchal impositions, but also to subvert them as they preserve full control of the family.