HERE IN THE U.S., FERTILITY IS ESTIMATED TO BE A $3 BILLION INDUSTRY, DOES IT SKIRT THE SCIENCE OF THE MALE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK AND GENETIC DISORDERS?

From an article in Salon May 9, 2007

Bionic parents and techno-children
Author Liza Mundy talks about "designer babies," the "epidemic" of twins, and why assisted reproduction is the world's biggest social experiment.

By Lynn Harris





Here in the U.S., fertility is estimated to be a $3 billion industry. Nearly 50,000 U.S. children were born via IVF in 2003, a 128 percent increase since 1996; 30,000 had donor sperm for dads. Donor eggs or embryos, gestational carriers (surrogates), screening of embryos for serious disease: Taken all together, the techniques of advanced reproductive technology (ART) add up to more than private discussions between doctors and would-be parents, more than individual stories of heartbreak and bliss. And according to journalist and author Liza Mundy, ART is not just changing "how we think" about parenting and procreation. In her exhaustively reported and tenaciously argued new book, "Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women and the World," Mundy observes that virtually every trend documented in the most recent National Vital Statistics Report is related to fertility technology. ART is changing us all: our very society, our very cells.