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Everything Conceivable: How the Science of Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Our World
written by Liza Mundy
Studio : Anchor
by Anchor
Release Date : 2008-05-06
Publisher : Anchor
Released : 2008-05-06
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781400095377
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 8 reviews)
List Price : $15.95
Our Price : $8.69
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Product Description |
Award-winning journalist Liza Mundy captures the human narratives, as well as the science, behind the controversial, multibillion-dollar fertility industry, and examines how this huge social experiment is transforming our most basic relationships and even our destiny as a species.
Skyrocketing infertility rates and dizzying technological advances are revolutionizing American families and changing the way we think about parenthood, childbirth, and life itself. Using in-depth reporting and riveting anecdotal material from doctors, families, surrogates, sperm and egg donors, infertile men and women, single and gay and lesbian parents, and children conceived through technology, Mundy explores the impact of assisted reproduction on individuals as well as the ethical issues raised and the potentially vast social consequences. The unforgettable personal stories in Everything Conceivable run the gamut from joyous to tragic; all of them raise questions we dare not ignore. |
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Engrossing and refreshingly objective account |
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The Washington Post Book Review above by Debora L. Spar amply demonstrates what is wrong with "professional" criticism today. How are we to believe Ms. Spar is an objective reader of Ms. Mundy's work when she has written a competitive account? I have not read Ms. Spar's own book - it may be very good - but her rush to discredit "Everything Conceivable" on ethical grounds is unseemly and inaccurate. Ms. Mundy's book dwells at length on the moral minefield that is assisted reproductive technology. No gory, heart-rending, uncomfortable detail is spared. There are entire chapters on the severe dangers of multiple births, the moral, medical and legal pitfalls of surrogacy and egg and sperm donation, and the agony of deciding whether to "delete" fetuses in multiple pregnancies. People will go to absolutely incredible lengths to have children, and this book is both compassionate and questioning in its examination of the unconventional families that result from infertile people turning desperately to an unregulated industry. Please do not let the review above (or Ms. Spar's supporter below) deter you from reading a fascinating, thoughtful and stylish book on an important subject. |
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Fascinating for all! A must read! |
"Everything Conceivable" by Liza Mundy is fascinating to say the very least. This book takes the reader on a thorough, unbiased trip through the world of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). As Liza Mundy proves with every turn of the page "reproductive technology is mirroring social change, but it also enables and drives that change, in ways that will affect every single citizen, and probably already have." Thus this book should intrigue everyone, both male and female, fertile and infertile because these issues indeed "affect every single citizen."
Liza literally takes the reader with her into reproductive clinics where doctors are performing selective reduction or stirring up humans in petri dishes. She brings the reader into the homes of the loving parents who's child came from those petri dishes and talks with both male and female gamete donors. "So broad is the patient base, and so eager is the field to accommodate them, that assisted reproduction has gone from being an oddball fringe technology to being perhaps the most socially influential reproductive technology of the twenty-first century." This exsquisite compilation is not just of facts and figures but stories full of raw emotion, real people, real life right here and now with consequences so far reaching that soon no one will escape them.
Meet same sex couples, their egg donors and surrogates. Meet the children of IVF and hear how they feel about not being biologially related to one of their parents. Hear tales of motherly exchanges via a website dedicated to mothers and children of sperm donor #1476. Ask yourself how you feel about a man donating sperm to his infertile son's wife so that his son will be raising his literal half brother. The situations are endless as are the opportunities, decisions, and repercussions.
A scientific masterpiece, that reads like the most captivating novel, this book begs the answers to questions such as when does life begin? What is life? and morally what can and should be done with it?
Along with bringing these soul-searching questions to the surface this book is simply an entertaining read. On all levels, this book is a must read!
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As interesting as a New York Times Magazine special feature |
For those who don't know anything about the field of assisted reproductive technologies, this serves as a great, though rather wordy, introduction to the $5-billion U.S. fertility industry. Mundy's style is engaging in general, and the content is captivating on its own because it is so sci-fi to most people. This book is packed full with personal stories from the front lines of "investigative reporting": meet real egg donors and gestational surrogates and their recipients, agonize with real families who are deciding which of their triplets to "selectively reduce," meet real lesbian couples who conceived with donor sperm, etc.
One thing that I didn't like about this book is that Mundy missed, it seems to me, an opportunity to give more of a voice to the children conceived with donor gametes, and more consideration and thought to their rights, problems and concerns. In the one chapter that she does have on the subject of children's rights, the children themselves actually don't get much of a voice. Much of the chapter is again devoted to the perspective of parents and professionals in the fertility industry, who also get the whole rest of the book. The fact that the children only get what is in essence half or less than half of a chapter in a whole book about repro tech is in itself very telling. It seems that the resulting children are often an afterthought in an industry that is geared entirely to satisfying the desires of infertile adults.
The other thing I didn't like was Mundy's occasional editorializing in this book. She is obviously in favor of using the reproductive technologies she writes about, she is pro-choice, and also clearly a Democrat -- and whenever she talks about anyone who has different opinions they are inevitably labeled "far Right". But if that doesn't bother you or you can get past it, then this book is a fairly good read - and certainly an eye-opening first-person account of an enormous industry that most people are not too aware exists. |
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for every prospective parent |
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This book is a must-read for anyone who is considering having children. Even though I conceived two kids with no medical intervention, I am glad that I know more about the business of conception. Liza Mundy has done a fantastic job presenting the facts about the latest reproductive technologies. I hope every prospective parent reads this book before they plan their family. |
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Sensationalized, Inaccurate Portrayal |
The author relies on the most controversial headlines rather than the "average" fertility patient. She sensationalizes something that is rather mundane in many ways.
Focusing on gay couples, HOMs, and other sensational stories while selecting inaccurate pictures of the current state of the ART business in the USA leads to a misleading book. A better book is The Baby Business by Debora Spar. Though, she does fall short, Ms. Spar's book is much more accurate and less sensationalistic. |
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