As Christians gather on this and every Christmas Eve, they will recount once again the tale of a young virgin who found herself mysteriously pregnant. They will speak of a fiance, who goes through with the marriage knowing the child to be born is not his. And they will marvel at the baby, whose coming was deemed miraculous.
Two thousand years later, more and more women are becoming pregnant without having been intimate with the child’s father. Their spouses, like Joseph, are supportive, and their pregnancies could be considered medical miracles.
They are surrogate mothers, who see the babies they carry as a gift to the infertile — indeed, to the whole human family.