Children of Choice Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies [Paperback]

Cloning, genetic screening, embryo freezing, in vitro fertilization, Norplant, RU486--these are the technologies revolutionizing our reproductive landscape. Through the lens of procreative liberty--meaning both the freedom to decide whether or not to have children as well as the freedom to control one's reproductive capacity--John Robertson, a leading legal bioethicist, analyzes the ethical, legal, and social controversies surrounding each major technology and opens up a multitude of fascinating questions: Do frozen embryos have the right to be born? Should parents be allowed to select offspring traits? May a government force welfare recipients to take contraceptives? Robertson's arguments examine the broad range of consequences of each reproductive technology and offers a timely, multifaceted analysis of the competing interests at stake for patients, couples, doctors, policymakers, lawyers, and ethicists.

John A. Robertsonis the Thomas Watt Gregory Professor in the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin, a fellow at the Hastings Center, and a member of the American Fertility Society. He is author ofThe Rights of the Critically Ill. Robertson's ... confrontational style takes the reader to the limits of the possible and beyond, to the extraordinary repercussions of reproductive techniques. This clear and thought-provoking book ... provides rich legal and ethical insights that will challenge and shape one's personal beliefs and professional ethics. ---Dilys M. Walker, M.D.,The New England Journal of Medicine Robertson has laid out, comprehensively and intelligibly, the procreative possibilities open to us now and in the future. ---Mary Warnock,New Scientist Robertson . . . argues that the principle of procreative liberty should be used to determine the ethics and legalities of the many controversial issues surrounding reproductive technology. . . . Robertson's position may not be universally accepted, but hilCx