With contributions from: Eric Blyth, Ken Daniels, Julia Feast, Robert Lee, Nina Martin, Alexina McWhinnie, Derek Morgan, Clare Murray, Sharon Pettle, Claire Potter, Jim Richards and Francoise Shenfield

The separation of procreation from conception has broadened notions of parenthood and created novel dilemmas. A woman may carry a foetus derived from gametes neither or only one of which came from her or her partner; or she may carry a foetus created using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) with the purpose of handing it to two other parents one, neither or both of whom may be genetically related to the prospective child. Parents may consist of single-sex couples, only one of them genetically related to the child; the prospective mother may be past her menopause; and genetic parenthood after death is now achievable. In a world increasingly reliant on medical science, how can the argument that equates traditional with natural and novel with unnatural/unethical be justified? Should there be legislation, which is notoriously slow to change, in a field driven by dazzling new possibilities at ever faster rate; particularly when restrictions differ from country to country, so that those who can afford it travel elsewhere for their treatment of choice? Whose rights are paramount - the adults hoping to build a family or the prospective child(ren)s future well being? On what basis can apparently competing rights be regulated or adjudicated and how and to what extent can these be enforced in practice?

In the 1960s thousands of poor women of color on the (post)colonial French island of Reunion had their pregnancies forcefully terminated by white doctors; the doctors operated under the pretext of performing benign surgeries, for which they sought government compensation. When the scandal broke in 1970, the doctors claimed to have been encouraged to perform these abortions by French politicians who sought to curtail reproduction on the island, even though abortion was illegal in France. In The Wombs of Women-first published in French and appearing here in English for the first time-Francoise Verges traces the long history of colonial state intervention in black women's wombs during the slave trade and postslavery imperialism as well as in current birth control politics. She examines the women's liberation movement in France in the 1960s and 1970s, showing that by choosing to ignore the history of the racialization of women's wombs, French feminists inevitably ended up defending the rights of white women at the expense of women of color. Ultimately, Verges demonstrates how the forced abortions on Reunion were manifestations of the legacies of the racialized violence of slavery and colonialism.

Jahrlich werden in Deutschland ca. 1.000 kunstliche Befruchtungen durchgefuhrt (sog. heterologe kunstliche Befruchtung). Insbesondere der Samenspender, aber auch alle anderen beteiligten Personen gehen dabei ein rechtliches Risiko ein - haufig ohne es zu wissen. Die Autorin entwickelt Moglichkeiten der zivilrechtlichen Haftungsfreistellung des Samenspenders und stellt ihre Alternative vor: die "rechtsfolgenlose Vaterschaftsfeststellungsklage." "

Helping the Stork The sourcebook for all the information parents-to-be need to know about the choices and challenges of donor insemination Each year donor insemination (DI) offers a pathway to parenthood for the hundreds of thousands who turn to family-building alternatives. Although DI is considered as often as adoption, couples facing male infertility, as well as single women and lesbian couples, have had few places to turn for information about this method, which has been shrouded in secrecy. In Helping the Stork, parents-to-be, as well as friends and family, doctors, and counselors, can explore the choices and challenges raised by this alternative to overcoming childlessness. This comprehensive handbook moves through each step of the process: reaching a solid decision about whether donor insemination is the best choice for a family's future; handling the difficult issue of privacy; selecting a donor and getting started; and learning to thrive as a family meeting DI's added challenges. Full of wisdom from medical and mental health experts, Helping the Stork is also enriched with stories from many families who share their insights and experiences. This book is a reassuring, supportive, and helpful guide that no one considering or going through the process of donor insemination should be without. Visit us online at http: //www.mcp.com/mgr

Cosa si prova a non poter avere un figlio? Quanto e difficile comunicare alla coppia una diagnosi di sterilita? Come affrontare il 70% dei fallimenti delle tecniche di PMA? Come una legge puo' incidere sul futuro di un embrione? Il testo, nato dalla fusione multidisciplinare medica, psicologica e sociologica, vuole riflettere su queste domande e accompagnare il lettore in una nuova forma mentis sulle criticita nella fecondazione assistita. La trama scientifica si accompagna a un linguaggio diretto dove hanno un posto rilevante le emozioni, cosi' centrali in campi quali la ginecologia, la riproduzione e la psicologia dell'infertilita, che vanno al cuore del bisogno psico-sessuale piu forte e arcaico: quello riproduttivo. Al centro del volume e la relazione medico-paziente che, nel campo dell'infertilita, e caratterizzata dall'attivazione di forti echi emotivi da parte di entrambi. Il volume, a tale riguardo, propone il protocollo SAHARAI che comprende due metodi inediti (il questionario e il nurse-ring) capaci di intervenire, rispettivamente, nella fase diagnostica e in quella terapeutica della fecondazione. I metodi e le riflessioni proposti sono volti alla riduzione dei disagi psicologici delle coppie e al riequilibrio del rapporto medico-paziente. Dal testo emerge forte una nuova idea di formazione per gli operatori dei centri di fecondazione assistita e un percorso di qualificazione per le nuove figure professionali (gli psicologi addetti alla PMA) in accordo con le nuove direttive della legge."

Reproductive technology is typically discussed in the future tense. Yet doctors have always treated involuntary childlessness. This book looks at the recent history of infertility and the different ways medicine has treated it. It traces the reluctance to allow infertility a past to a new tension that has emerged between utopian and anti-utopian fears about the growth rate and composition of population.

"The Stork and the Syringe" argues that although doctors' approach to infertility is formed in response to the exigencies of the political economy of medical practice, it also accommodates a persistent gender bias: the tendency to regard women's bodies as inviting intervention and men's as demanding caution. This bias is manifest in relation to gametes (eggs and sperm), sex hormones, in the form of medical investigations and treatment, and the frequency and enthusiasm with which the latter are carried out. Departures from this theme are rare and controversial, as the history of artificial insemination using donor semen demonstrates.

This book is a major contribution to the history and sociology of reproduction, fertility, population and medicine.

Scientists investigating germ cells have, over the past 15 years, originated discoveries and innovations that give us valuable insights into the mechanisms that regulate not just stem cell function, but human development in its widest sense. With contributions from some of the leading researchers in the field, Male Germline Stem Cells: Developmental and Regenerative Potential assesses the implications of these discoveries for understanding the fundamental biology of germline stem cells as well as their potential for human stem cell-based therapies. This monograph covers many of the fundamental issues now being explored by today's generation of stem cell researchers, including the field's potential for regenerative medicine. Ranging from an assessment of the pluripotency of primordial germ cells and their possible applications in treating testicular cancer, to the recovery of once-mordant fertilization-competent sperm, this volume has it all. It is a reference point for any scientist involved in related research as well as being a timely summation of what could prove to be a hugely exciting and very fruitful area of inquiry.

'It is very hard to produce a timely book about a subject that changes as quickly as technologically assisted reproduction, but John Harris and Soren Holm have managed to do exactly that. The fourteen essays in this small volume provide an extremely useful and highly readable overview of the key moral, legal, and social themes raised by new ways of making babies. . . . The book is unique in that it offers perspectives on all these topics from a variety of disciplines and professions as well as from a broad range of national and cultural perspectives.' Arthur Caplan, British Medical Journal

Die moderne Reproduktionsmedizin wird oftmals als letzte Chance von Partnern ausgewahlt, um ihren starken, bisher unerfullten Wunsch nach einem eigenen Kind einzuloesen - ungeachtet dessen, dass sie oeffentlich sehr kontrovers diskutiert werden und haufig auf grosse Ablehnung stossen. Die Teilnahme an einer Reproduktionsbehandlung ist kostenintensiv: Zusatzlich zu den finanziellen Kosten der medizinischen Behandlung kommen noch weitere subjektive Kosten hinzu, so z.B. ein erheblicher Zeitaufwand wahrend der Fertilisierungstherapien oder aber auch das Ertragen koerperlicher und psychischer Belastungen. Die vorliegende Arbeit erforscht die Einstellung der Betroffenen zur Reproduktionsmedizin und was sie mit einem Kind verbinden. Daruber hinaus wird erforscht, wie die ungewollt kinderlosen Partner die koerperlichen, psychischen und finanziellen Belastungen erleben und bewerten.

Nowhere has the impact of ultrasonography been more dramatic than in reproductive medicine, particularly in the diagnosis of female and male infertility, the management of assisted reproductive procedures and the monitoring of early pregnancy. This authoritative textbook encompasses the complete role of ultrasonography in the evaluation of infertility and assisted reproduction. Covering every indication for ultrasonography in assisted reproductive technology, this will prove an invaluable resource in the evaluation of the infertile patient and optimization of the outcome of treatment. The interpretation of images to improve fertility and reproductive success is emphasized throughout. Ultrasonography in Reproductive Medicine and Infertility is essential reading for clinicians working both in IVF clinics and in office practice. It will be particularly useful to gynecologists, infertility specialists, ultrasonographers and radiologists working in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, assisted reproductive technology, ultrasonography and radiology.

Die medizinische Behandlung der ungewollten Kinderlosigkeit wird hierzulande nach wie vor mit einer Mischung aus Interesse am medizinisch-technischen Fortschritt und Sorge uber die mogli- cherweise nicht mehr kalkulierbaren Risiken dieses Fortschrittes betrachtet. Die Reaktionen reichen dabei von der implizi ten Gleichsetzung konkreter Formen der Reproduktionsmedizin mit den fiktiven Verhaltnissen in der 'Schonen Neuen welt'1, bis hin zu Einschatzungen, wonach sich die Reproduktionsmedizin in naher Zukunft als ein unverzichtbares Instrument bei der Bekampfung eines langandauernden Bevolkerungsruckganges in der BRD erweisen 2 werde. Auch wenn sich in den letzten 5-10 Jahren das Interesse der Offentlichkeit verstarkt den verschiedenen Formen der medizini- 3 schen Behandlung ungewollter Kinderlosigkeit zugewandt hat, so scheint mit diesem verstarkten Interesse kein Anstieg der Anzahl Der Vergleich des heutigen Potentials der Reproduk- tionsmedizin mit den Schilderungen der industriellen Erzeugung von Menschen in A. Huxleys Roman "Schone Neue Welt" gehort zu den Standardbildern in weiten Teilen der Literatur uber die medizinische Behandlung der ungewollten Kinderlosigkeit. So z.B. auch bei: Hirsch, G. und Eberbach W. (1987): Auf dem Weg zum kunstlichen Leben - Retortenkinder, Leihmutter, pro- grammierte Gene Basel, Boston, Stuttgart. S.31ff. 2 So ein Reproduktionsmediziner in der Fernsehsendung 'Explosiv' (RTL 22.5.'91). 3 Man denke z. B. nur an die Kontroversen im Zuge der Erarbeitung des Embryonenschutzgesetzes, an die Richt- linien zur Durchfuhrung der In-vitro-Fertilisation der Bundesarztekammer, an die Initiativen auf dem 56.

Master the effective evaluation, analysis and management of placental-fetal growth restriction (PFGR), developing strategies to reduce the risk of perinatal mortality and morbidity in patients worldwide. Extensively researched by international experts, this manual provides practitioners with a detailed, hands-on approach to the practical 'pearls' for direct patient management. This authoritative volume advises on matters such as the correct evaluation and management of high-risk patients in danger of PFGR through to delivery. Extensive and wide-ranging, this book is an invaluable companion to the developing research interest and clinical applications in PFGR, including developmental outcomes in early childhood. Featuring a critical evaluation of a variety of abnormal conditions, such as fetal hypoxia and extreme prematurity, which are clearly displayed through extensive illustrations, this essential toolkit ensures that practitioners at all levels can effectively limit adverse outcome and reach the correct diagnosis.

In the mid-1990s, the international community pronounced prenatal sex selection via abortion an "act of violence against women" and "unethical." At the same time, new developments in reproductive technology in the United States led to a method of sex selection before conception; its US inventor marketed the practice as "family balancing" and defended it with the rhetoric of freedom of choice. In Gender before Birth, Rajani Bhatia takes on the double standard of how similar practices in the West and non-West are divergently named and framed. Bhatia's extensive fieldwork includes interviews with clinicians, scientists, biomedical service providers, and feminist activists, and her resulting analysis extends both feminist theory on reproduction and feminist science and technology studies. She argues that we are at the beginning of a changing transnational terrain that presents new challenges to theorized inequality in reproduction, demonstrating how the technosciences often get embroiled in colonial gender and racial politics.