Jeff Nisker has been writing plays since the early 1990s. He did this in order to bring audiences to the position of persons immersed in the vortex of new scientific capacity and its social implications. Jeff ultimately aims to promote humanity in health policy development. From Calcedonies to Orchids: Plays Promoting Humanity in Health Policy is a collection of plays based on Jeff's experiences, those experiences shared with him, and interviews conducted by Jeff. His first play, Orchids, explores the concepts of "health" and "enhancement," "disease" and "difference," in the new world of reproductive genetics in which he was immersed as a scientist and clinician. Sarah's Daughters suggests opening the conversation of genetic risk, rather than allowing its continued submergence in secrets of fear of genetic discrimination. A Child on Her Mind examines becoming a mother in the new reproductive technology age and juxtaposes the beauty of becoming a mother with the ugliness of societal impellations, socio-economic inequalities, and coercive relationships. Camouflage stimulates the public discussion of psychological intimate partner violence, a health issue hidden by a lack of physical bruises. Philip asks where lines should be drawn separating a child's intellectual capacity from chronological age in health policies. Jeff was inspired to write his newest play in this collection, Calcedonies, when a woman crashed into him in her chin-operated power chair and asked him to write a play about her.

Public attention on embryo research has never been greater. Modern reproductive medicine technology and the use of embryos to generate stem cells ensure that this will continue to be a topic of debate and research across many disciplines. This multidisciplinary book explores the concept of a 'healthy' embryo, its implications on the health of children and adults, and how perceptions of what constitutes child and adult health influence the concept of embryo 'health'. The concept of human embryo health is considered from preconception to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to recent foetal surgical approaches. Burgeoning capacities in both genetic and reproductive science and their clinical implications have catalysed the necessity to explore the concept of a 'healthy' embryo. The authors are from five countries and 13 disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, biological sciences and medicine, ensuring that the book has a broad coverage and approach.