Scientific breakthroughs have led us to a point where soon we will be able to make specific choices about the genetic makeup of our offspring. In fact, this reality has arrived—and it is only a matter of time before the technology becomes widespread.

Much like past arguments about stem-cell research, the coming debate over these reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs) will be both political and, for many people, religious. In order to understand how the debate will play out in the United States, John H. Evans conducted the first in-depth study of the claims made about RGTs by religious people from across the political spectrum, and Contested Reproduction is the stimulating result.

Some of the opinions Evans documents are familiar, but others—such as the idea that certain genetic conditions produce a “meaningful suffering” that is, ultimately, desirable—provide a fascinating glimpse of religious reactions to cutting-edge science. Not surprisingly, Evans discovers that for many people opinion on the issue closely relates to their feelings about abortion, but he also finds a shared moral language that offers a way around the unproductive polarization of the abortion debate and other culture-war concerns. Admirably evenhanded, Contested Reproduction is a prescient, profound look into the future of a hot-button issue.

For those who undergo it, infertility treatment is costly, time-consuming, invasive, and emotionally and physically arduous, yet technology remains the focus of most public discussion of the topic. Drawing on concepts from medical ethics, feminist theory, and Roman Catholic social teaching, Maura A. Ryan analyzes the economic, ethical, theological, and political dimensions of assisted reproduction.

Taking seriously the experience of infertility as a crisis of the self, the spirit, and the body, Ryan argues for the place of reproductive technologies within a temperate, affordable, sustainable, and just health care system. She contends that only by ceasing to treat assisted reproduction as a consumer product can meaningful questions about medical appropriateness and social responsibility be raised. She places infertility treatments within broader commitments to the common good, thereby understanding reproductive rights as an inherently social, rather than individual, issue. Arguing for some limits on access to reproductive technology, Ryan considers ways to assess the importance of assisted reproduction against other social and medical prerogatives and where to draw the line in promoting fertility. Finally, Ryan articulates the need for a compassionate spirituality within faith communities that will nurture those who are infertile.

Building on the renewal of Thomistic ethics encouraged by key moral encyclicals including Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, and Evangelium Vitae, Swiss philosopher Martin Rhonheimer revisits some of the most difficult questions regarding the ethics of procreation and human life.

The overall purpose of Human Embryos, Human Beings is to establish the ontological status of the human embryo, in light of the most recent biological evidence. The thesis of the book is that sound philosophical reasoning and the available scientific evidence support the claim that a human being is present from the moment of fertilization onward (the “immediate hominization” view) and does not support the contrary claim that a human being appears only after a time following fertilization (the “delayed hominization” view). Included in the scope of this argument is an examination of several long-standing philosophical arguments claiming that immediate hominization is false; a detailed examination of several arguments claiming that though immediate hominization is possible, both evidence and argument best support the delayed hominization view or some alternate view; and an examination of several cases where natural defect or scientific manipulation make determining the ontological status of the embryo more difficult. The book also includes a presentation of hylomorphism, as this is the philosophical viewpoint employed by the authors to analyze the question. Human Embryos, Human Beings is based on the premise that philosophical and scientific approaches are not in conflict, with the most comprehensive understanding of human embryos being achieved by application of a rigorous hylomorphic philosophy to the best available scientific data. Often, one finds either a thorough and well-reasoned philosophical account or a detailed scientific account. This book makes a welcome addition to the field by integrating both of these needed elements into a single text.

"Anyone considering a new method of conception or struggling to resolve infertility should read this book. The authors point to the need for more public discussion of infertility and more social support groups for the infertile. Reading and discussing this book is a first step. It is also an excellent supplementary text for courses in human sexuality, sex and gender roles, women and society, or medical ethics, and is guaranteed to provoke lively class discussion." --Contemporary Sociology This revised and updated edition provides an accessible discussion of how new reproductive technologies work and how well they work. Includes gripping personal and professional accounts from infertility specialists and would-be parents who have used in vitro fertilization, donor insemination, surrogacy, and other technologies. Would-be parents speak candidly about the difficult process--repeated office visits, frequent tests, and anxious waiting for results--and the staggering costs--in dollars, stress, and physical consequences. "This book will be useful for several audiences. Infertile women and men considering the new reproductive technologies will find this book an invaluable resource. Health professionals working with infertility patients will find that the book offers helpful insights into the experiences and concerns of their clients. Finally, researchers studying infertility will find this book to be a rich source of interesting hypotheses." --Contemporary Psychology "Lasker and Borg present a thoughtful and sensitive examination of the world of the new reproductive technologies. Most importantly, they offer us the voices of the women and men who have been there: in infertility clinics, in in vitro programs, in so-called 'surrogacy' contracts. They share with us the success and failure, joy and grief of our brave new world of reproduction." --Barbara Katz Rothman, author of The Tentative Pregnancy: Prenatal Diagnosis and the Future of Motherhood

In Making Gaybies Jaya Keaney explores queer family making as a site of racialized intimacy. Drawing on interviews with queer families in Australia, Keaney traces the lived experiences of choice and constraint as these families seek to craft likeness with their future children and tell stories of chosen family made through love. Queer family building often involves multiracial and multicultural encounters, as intending parents take part in the global fertility industry. Keaney follows queer family making through reproductive technologies and highlights the confines of varied transnational reproductive markets and policies as well as changing formations of race, gender, sexuality, and kinship. Whether sharing the story of white gay men choosing Indian and Thai egg donors to make their surrogate-born children’s ethnicities visually distinct from their own or that of an Aboriginal lesbian and her white partner choosing a Cherokee donor from the United States to articulate a global Indigeneity, Keaney foregrounds the entwinement of reproduction, race, and affect. By focusing on queer family making, Keaney demonstrates how reproduction fosters a queer multiracial imaginary of kinship.

A searing study of how modern reproductive politics shapes women's bodily agency

Pregnancy indisputably takes place within a woman's body. But as reproductive power finds its way into the hands of medical professionals, lobbyists, and policymakers, the geographies of pregnancy are shifting, and the boundaries need to be redrawn, argues Laura R. Woliver. The Political Geographies of Pregnancy is a vigorous analysis of the ways modern reproductive politics are shaped by long-standing debates on abortion and adoption, surrogacy arrangements, new reproductive technologies, medical surveillance, and the mapping of the human genome.

Across a politically charged backdrop of reproductive issues, Woliver exposes strategies that claim to uphold the best interests of children, families, and women but in reality complicate women's struggles to have control over their own bodies. Utilizing feminist standpoint theory and promoting a feminist ethic of care, Woliver looks at abortion politics, modern adoption laws that cater to male-headed families, regulations that allow the state to monitor pregnant women but not always provide care for them, and the power structures behind the seemingly benign world of egg-selling and surrogate parenting. She also considers the potentially staggering political implications of mapping the human genome, and the exclusion of women's perspectives in discussions about legislation and advancements in reproductive technologies.