All religion and much philosophy has been concerned with the contrast between the ephemeral and the eternal. Human beings have always sought ways to overcome time, and to prove that death is not the end. This book consists then in an exploration of certain closely related ideas: personal identity, time, history and our commitment to the future, and the role of imagination in life.

Warnock argues in particular that the notion of personal immortality, as it appears in Christian dogma, cannot be taken literally. Nevertheless, as a metaphor, immortality may illuminate both our relation with the past, our understanding of the present and our responsibility for the future. In the course of the argument, philosophical themes of personal identity, of history, and of values, are explored, as well as the cognitive content of the imagination.

Discusses artificial and in vitro fertilization, egg and embryo donation, surrogate mothers, the storage of human semen, eggs, and embryos, and scientific and ethical issues in fertility.