december 2003 Photo: Charlotte Jenks Lewis/Studio D Susan Ring
agreed to carry twins for an infertile couple. But what began as
a simple surrogacy ended in money problems, lawsuits, and
accusations of kidnapping—raising the singularly modern
question, What, exactly, is a mother? If you happen to have a
laboratory-created embryo on hand and need someone willing to
carry your child—you're over 40, say, with a serious infertility
condition—the moment you meet surrogate Susan Ring, you'll
probably want her to be the one. At 42, Ring is like the all-
around nice mom in the PTA: She's pretty, without any attitude
about it, and sure of herself in a way that suggests she must
have had good parenting. A full-time human resources assistant,
Ring lives close to Los Angeles, where she gets around in a 1989
gray Volvo with broken air-conditioning. Although a friend
suggested that her romantic life might improve if she bought a
new car, Ring is too sensible for that. As a divorced mother of
two young boys, she'd rather driv