In dealing with recent advances in biological engineering and human reproduction, we are confronted with legal, ethical, and religious questions for which there are no precedents. Warren Freedman undertakes a comprehensive examination of this topic. Sorting through the tangle of issues surrounding artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood, and other aspects of contemporary reproduction trends, Freedman attempts to clarify the rights and responsibilities of individuals, families, and society in the face of these new developments.

The author begins with a survey of the legal implications of nontraditional approaches to conception and birth. Separate chapters are devoted to artificial insemination and surrogate motherhood; and new concepts such as cryo-preservation, in-vitro fertilization, banking of sperms and eggs, and patentable new organisms are also discussed in detail. The author addresses questions of rights and liabilities as they apply to fetuses, donors, and adoptive parents, as well as the role of physicians and parenthood organizations, researchers, corporations, and government. Following a review of existing statutes, policies, and contracts that attempt to deal with these issues both here and abroad, he presents proposals that may aid in achieving equitable, uniform solutions. Freedman's book will be of interest to any citizen, group, or government agency concerned with these vital questions, and to professionals in law, government, medicine, human services, and industry.

For counselor Nancy Wainer Cohen, this book is the sibling to "Silent Knife: Cesarean Prevention and Vaginal Birth after Cesarean "(Bergin & Garvey, 1983) her critically-acclaimed expose on America's growing reliance on cesarean sections. "Open Season "provides fresh insights and new information on the subject, offering guidance to childbearing couples, educators, health professionals, and scholars who value the natural path of childbirth.

Readers will find this book timely, informative, shocking, irreverent, and extremely readable. Cohen's intimate writing style presents a compendium of knowledge on childbirth in the fashion of a personal letter. Her aim is to lower America's alarming reliance on cesarean section, which is currently at 25 percent of all births, and to return the responsibility for childbirth to women by encouraging them to choose the kind of birthing experience they wish to have. In addition to cesarean section, Cohen discusses many other generally unnecessary interventions performed on women during pregnancy and childbirth--such as fetal monitoring and routinized hospital procedures.

The world's population is growing at an unsustainable rate. From a baseline ?gure of one billion in 1800, global population is predicted to exceed nine billion by 2050 and 87. 8% of this growth will be localized in less developed countries. Such uneven population growth will yield a harvest of poverty, malnutrition, disease and en- ronmental degradation that will affect us all. Amongst the complex mixture of political, social, cultural and technological changes needed to address this issue, the development of improved methods of fertility regulation will be critical. The inadequacy of current contraceptive technologies is indicated by recent data s- gesting that the contraceptive needs of over 120 million couples go unmet every year. As a direct consequence of this de?cit 38% of pregnancies are unplanned and more than 50% end in an abortion, generating a total of 46 million abortions per annum particularly among teenagers. If safe, effective contraceptives were ava- able to every couple experiencing an unmet family planning need, 1. 5 million lives would be saved each year (UNFPA 2003). Progress in contraceptive technology should not only generate more effective methods of regulating fertility, but should also provide a range of methods to meet the changing needs of the world's population. Contraceptive practice was revo- tionized in 1960 in the US and 1961 in Europe by the introduction of the oral contraceptive pill by Gregory Pincus, MC Chang and colleagues, based on fun- mental hormone research conducted in Germany.

The over-arching goal of this volume is to help infertility practitioners evaluate and manage their patients with poor semen quality. The authors review the existing literature on the effects of medications on male fertility, and provide detailed information about what is known, giving the number of individuals and population characteristics for studies of medication effects on male fertility. Medications are designed to treat illness and reduce symptoms, but all have undesirable adverse effects such as headache or stomach upset. Some adverse reactions can even be life-threatening, so it is no surprise that some drugs have negative effects on male reproduction. Medical practitioners rarely consider a man's reproductive plans when prescribing medications. Men are routinely treated with drugs that can impair or abolish fertility. Although practitioners in the field of reproductive medicine generally realize that certain drugs impact negatively on reproductive health, there are limited resources providing evidence-based knowledge useful in counseling patients. Tables throughout this volume summarize the information for each drug, providing a handy reference for clinical use.

In recent years, the advancing science and increasing availability of assisted reproduction have given new hope to infertile couples. However, the use of IVF and ART has also led to marked increases in the number of multiple-infant live births. This poses a public health concern, as these neonates have a higher rate of pre-term delivery, compromising their survival chances and increasing their risk of lifelong disability. By optimizing the selection of gametes and embryos with high probabilities of implantation, it is possible to reduce the number of embryos transferred and, by extension, the number of high-risk multiple gestations, while maintaining or increasing pregnancy rates. Human Gametes and Preimplantation Embryos: Assessment and Diagnosis provides a broad yet concise overview of established and developing methodologies for assessment of gamete and embryo viability in assisted reproduction. This book elucidates the best practices for precisely selecting viable specimens based on morphology and cleavage rate and covers the spectrum of emerging adjunctive technologies for predicting reproductive potential. The authors present their extensive knowledge of "omics" approaches (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), with unbiased delineation of the associated advantages and potential pitfalls. This valuable clinical resource is well suited to infertility specialists, Ob/Gyn physicians, IVF laboratory technicians, and researchers in the fields of embryology and reproductive medicine.

Since the late 1960s, there has been an acceleration of research focused on understanding how the efferent ducts, the epididymis, and the vas deferens function with respect to the maturation and storage of spermatozoa and as hormone dependent tissues. Another major interest in the epididymis is that it is an attractive target for the development of male contraceptives. There are well over 16,000 peer reviewed articles in the literature on these tissues, their structure, gene expression, protein synthesis and function. Regular international meetings have been initiated that are dedicated to this field. Thus, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive reference volume that spans every facet of epididymal biology, from historical background to the most current results, from basic cell and molecular biology to clinical issues. Well-established experts from every part of the world have contributed to this volume. By necessity, each author was given page limitations so that many topics are not dealt with exhaustively. Whenever possible, references to more comprehensive discussion of specific topics are included.

Drawing on a wide range of interviews and primary and secondary sources, this book investigates the dynamic interactions between national regulatory formation and the global biopolitics of regenerative medicine and human embryonic stem cell science.

In this second volume, the Biennial Review of Infertility brings together the most up-to-date research and clinical information on male and female infertility, emerging assisted reproductive techniques, and controversial issues in reproductive medicine. This volume includes discussion of cutting-edge topics such as epigenetics, proteomics, and the role of the environment in fertility, as well as insightful evidence-based discussion of common clinical procedures. It is the cumulative effort of a preeminent panel of experts presenting each chapter in a clear and well-balanced manner. Created to provide an ongoing appraisal of current knowledge, the Biennial Review of Infertility stimulates communication amongst all those working to help couples resolve their infertility.

Thanks to enormous scientific efforts of the last decades, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and in vitro production (IVP) have now been introduced successfully in the practice of human infertility treatment and cattle breeding programs. This comprehensive book allows us to bridge the knowledge from both biomedical and veterinary fields of research. For the first time, studies concerning the human embryo as well as embryos from domestic species are brought together. The central theme of the book is "the assessment of mammalian embryo quality." In 15 chapters, written by well-known scientists, different aspects of the assessment of mammalian embryo quality are summarized. Non-invasive and invasive techniques to evaluate embryo quality are separated in two parts. In addition the book is provided with appendices on practical aspects and, thus, the book should be present in each laboratory for IVF and IVP.

With the emergence of fertility declines in the greater part of the developing world, study of the phenomenon has increased profoundly over the last three decades, and a voluminous amount of literature has emerged. Yet our knowledge of the decline is scattered in numerous publications, making sources difficult to find. This bibliography provides a guide to the literature on fertility decline in Latin America, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. It will be an invaluable asset for population experts and students wishing to do research on fertility decline. Covering the literature from 1960 to 1997, the book draws on extensive sources including books, articles in leading population journals, research papers, and dissertations. The opening chapter covers the literature on theories and concepts underlying fertility decline. The next three chapters are devoted to the major geographical areas--Latin America, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa--and the final chapter looks at general literature on fertility declines in developing countries.

'Hill's advice is straightforward and no-nonsense' - The Guardian 'A life-transforming book... fascinating - Daily Mail 'Maisie Hill has written a bloody brilliant book (pun intended). Everything you need to know about periods and how they affect you and your life is here. It's revolutionary' - Miranda Sawyer 'Thank GOODNESS for Maisie Hill! Flipping open the lid on a vital conversation. It's about time we claimed the power of our periods!' - Gemma Cairney, broadcaster & co-founder of Boom Shakalaka Productions 'This is such an important book. Maisie's insights and cycle strategy have changed my life and my cycle. Period Power is written with such intelligence, humour and a deep understanding of women's health. If you have a period you need to read this book.' - Anna Jones, author of The Modern Cook's Year A profound and practical blueprint for aligning daily life with your menstrual cycle. Period Power is the handbook to periods and hormones that will leave you wondering why the hell nobody told you this sooner. The hormones of the menstrual cycle profoundly influence our energy, mood and behaviour, but all too often we're taught that our hormones make us unreliable, moody bitches, or that it's our lot in life to put up with 'women's problems'. Maisie Hill, a women's health practitioner, knows the power of working with the menstrual cycle and refuses to accept this theory. Instead, Maisie believes that our hormones are there to serve us and, if utilized correctly, can be used to help you get what you want out of life. Yes, we are hormonal, and that's a very good thing. This revolutionary book reveals everything you need to know about taking control of your menstrual cycle and outlines The Cycle Strategy to help us perform at our best, throughout our cycle. In Period Power you will discover how to: - maximise your natural superpowers each month while making adjustments for the darker days, and use Maisie's favourite tips to improve them - identify your personal patterns, powers and pitfalls for each phase of the menstrual cycle - plan your month to perform at your best in all aspects of your life - figure out if you have a hormonal imbalance and what to do about it. Period Power is a no-nonsense guide with all the tools you need to improve your menstrual health.

In this book, twenty-one researchers and clinicians review the study of the genetics of male infertility, the tools available in the laboratory and clinic, the current state of knowledge, and the future of research and translation into clinical diagnostics and treatments.

New tools discussed are discussed. This book therefore serves as a guide to evidence-based clinical applications, and a preview of future possibilities.

This text, by a director of university counselling, examines the interplay of forces shaping the development of masculinity. It is particularly important during a period when the status of men has undergone considerable erosion in society. Counsellors, psychotherapists, mental health professionals, and all those working with teenage males will find this study of sex and gender issues, male bonding, psychosexual adjustment, situational ethics, and sexuality illuminating.

This book summarizes the contributions at an April 2016 conference held at Albany Medical College, Reproductive Ethics: New Challenges and Conversations. Reproductive ethics does not suffer from a lack of challenging issues, yet a few "hot button" issues such as abortion and surrogacy seem to attract most of the attention, while other issues and dilemmas remain relatively underdeveloped in bioethics literature. The goal of this book is to explore and expand the range of topics addressed in reproductive ethics. This is a multi-disciplinary book bringing together philosophers, clinicians, sociologists, anthropologists, and other scholars whose research or clinical interests touch reproductive issues. The results of this compilation are a comprehensive and unique discussion of the evolving issues in the rapidly changing field. The majority of the popular reproductive ethics anthologies were published at least 10 years ago. The field of reproductive ethics would benefit from a new anthology that addresses some of the perennial dilemmas in reproductive ethics (e.g. abortion, sex selection) from updated perspectives and that also covers new technologies that have emerged only in the last few years, such as social egg freezing.

Brantlinger discusses the current medical and legal trends in sterilization with special emphasis on people with disabilities. She explores the issues surrounding sterilization decisions from the perspectives of judges, lawyers, social workers, doctors, family planners, as well as the families and individuals themselves. Woven throughout the book are case studies of individuals ranging from mild to severe retardation.

Brantlinger discusses the current medical and legal trends in sterilization with special emphasis on people with disabilities. She explores the issues surrounding sterilization decisions from the perspectives of judges, lawyers, social workers, doctors, family planners, as well as the families and individuals themselves.

Woven throughout the book are case studies of individuals ranging from mild to severe retardation. She illustrates how ethical issues related to sterilization are framed and which moral values are called upon during decision-making. She ends with guidelines for decision-making. As the most comprehensive and up-to-date work on the subject, this book will be invaluable to professionals in the social services and mental health fields as well as researchers in law, special education, social work, and public health. Individuals confronting these concerns will find the volume instructive as well.

Knowledge about cancer genetics is rapidly expanding, and has implications for all aspects of cancer research and treatment, including molecular causation, diagnosis, prevention, screening, and treatment.

Additionally, while cancer genetics has traditionally focused on mutational events that have their primary effect within the cancer cell, recently the focus has widened, with evidence of the importance of epigenetic events and of cellular interactions in cancer development. The role of common genetic variation in determining the range of individual susceptibility within the population is increasingly recognized, and is now being widely addressed using information from the Human Genome Project. These new research directions will highlight determinants of cancer that lie outside the cancer cell, suggest new targets for intervention, and inform the design of strategies for prevention in groups at increased risk.

Today, the NCI is putting more and more money into research into the genetics of cancer. The very first of the NCI s stated research priorities is a project called The Cancer Genome Atlas. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is a comprehensive and coordinated effort to accelerate the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer through the application of genome analysis technologies, including large-scale genome sequencing. The NCI and the NHGRI (National Human Genome Research Institute, where the series editor is employed) have each committed $50 million over three years to the TCGA Pilot Project.

This book proposes cover the latest findings in the genetics of male reproductive cancers; specifically cancers of the prostate and testes. The volume will cover the epidemiology of these cancers; model systems, pathology, molecular genetics, and inherited susceptibility."

This well-written text thoroughly addresses two quality of life issues in patients with a variety of neurological disorders: sexual and reproductive function. The de vasta stating effects of a variety of neurological diseases are well known to both the lay and medical communitIes, and are treated in numerous texts. However, as we continue to experience therapeutic breakthroughs in the tields of neurology and rehabilitation medicine, physicians and patients must become more aware of the issues discussed in this text. It is particularly important, as emphasized throughout the chapters, that the physician or therapist initiate conversations with the patients concerning both the possibility of parenting a child, as well as the ability of the patient to enhance his/her sexual functioning. Commonly in the patient who is otherwise perfectly normal, there is a reluctance to discuss these topics and couples often feel embarrassed to initiate a conversation with their physi cians. This reluctance to initiate a discussion is even more apparent in patients with a variety of neurological disorders, in which there are overriding fears concerning both function and survival, as well as deep concerns about their own attractiveness, and their sexual and repro ductive ability."

This volume covers data describing the role of free radicals and antioxidants that deal with clinical and pre-clinical trials, as well as basic research in the area of women's health. There is increasing evidence that oxidative stress is a causative, or at least a supporting factor in female pathology and infertility. During advancing gestational age, oxidative stress biomakers rise. Oxidative stress plays a regulatory role in transcription, signal transduction, gene expression and membrane trafficking. A search on Pub Med shows 449 papers have been published to date related to women's health disorders and use of antioxidants in a variety of disease that are prevalent in women, such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, obesity and restless leg syndrome.

The concept of reproductive health promises to play a crucial role in improving health care provision and legal protection for women around the world. This is an authoritative and much-needed introduction to and defence of the concept of reproductive health, which though internationally endorsed, is still contested. The authors are leading authorities on reproductive medicine, women's health, human rights, medical law, and bioethics. They integrate their disciplines to provide an accessible but comprehensive picture. They analyse 15 cases from different countries and cultures, and explore options for resolution. The aim is to equip readers to fashion solutions in their own health care circumstances, compatibly with ethical, legal and human rights principles.

An exploration of the policy dilemmas with new fertility control techniques, this volume offers the first comprehensive treatment of the subject's technical, legal, and political dimensions. Robert H. Blank provides a detailed discussion of current state laws and court decisions, and extensive analysis of new fertility control techniques and their social and policy implications. Blank describes the political, institutional, and constitutional context of fertility control in the United States, examining the relationship between social structures and rapid advances in biomedical technology. He details innovations in fertility control, particularly reversible methods, and reviews the legal context of both voluntary and non-consensual sterilization. Examining the myriad contemporary policy issues relating to fertility control, this book offers insights for devising a rational fertility control policy that will maximize benefits and minimize potential abuses. Written for the informed layperson, it is will also be valuable to professionals in health, policy analysis, bioethics, family planning, and public policy.

Don P. Wolf and Mary Zelinski-Wooten provide a comprehensive review of the procedures and techniques used in assisted reproduction, as well as in nuclear transfer for both the treatment of human infertility and the propagation of animals. Combining the details of clinical application with the physiological facts of reproduction, the authors treat subjects such as the in vitro maturation of oocytes, embryo culture, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and the process of nuclear transfer. Cutting-edge and wide-ranging, Assisted Fertilization and Nuclear Transfer in Mammals offers clinical ARTs practitioners, research scientists, those responsible for animal care, and students not only an informative historical perspective on the development of ARTs, but also updates on several of the more dynamic clinical areas, and a highly practical understanding of their applications.

This book discusses the role of oxidative stress in the reproductive system. The book reviews endogenous sources, methods of determining its levels in body fluid/tissues, the physiological roles of ROS, as well as its negative effects on the human reproductive processes. Also discussed are multiple extrinsic factors that could induce oxidative stress in the reproductive system. This volume covers various clinical pathologies related to the reproductive system that arise from or produce oxidative stress, both in the male and female. The use of antioxidants as a therapeutic measure to keep ROS levels in check are highlighted, describing the outcome of various clinical studies involving antioxidant supplementation in infertile patients. Infertility is a global disease that affects 15-25% of all couples, and oxidative stress arising from a multitude of sources has been implicated as one of the major contributing factors to the decline in human fertility. As such, this book provides an up-to-date review on the significance of ROS in human reproduction.

In spite of the fact that almost eighty percent of all IVF cycles are unsuccessful, the dominant representations of the technology are of its success. Based on extensive interviews with women and couples who have undergone IVF unsuccessfully and who have since stopped treatment, and taking an overtly feminist approach, the book explores the ways in which IVF failure is experienced and accounted for. The book argues that IVF failure and the end of treatment have to be carefully managed over time in order to construct the self as 'normal' in the profoundly gendered context of reproductive normativity. Treatment failure is identified in the book not only as a central, but largely excluded, aspect of the experience of IVF, but also of a proliferating range of new, more controversial reproductive and genetic technologies.

This book analyzes the basic science and treatment of male factor infertility with Dr. Silber's characteristic honesty and clear thinking. It describes finally what works and what doesn't work. It will inspire everyone in reproductive medicine (Gynecologists, Urologists, Embryologists and Endocrinologists) who wish to better understand male infertility.