Based on the 4th series of Hamlyn Lectures, this book examines the choices the law allows citizens in managing their private and family lives. Focusing on three aspects - having a child, making relationships, and death - it discusses serious questions raised by the rapid legal change of the last 30 years, such as personal freedom, same-sex relationships and their place in changing attitudes towards marriage and divorce, child protection and the family, and attitudes towards death and the terminally ill.