No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction - Softcover

Dollar, Ellen Painter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0664236901 ISBN 13: 9780664236908

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012

Synopsis

In No Easy Choice, Ellen Painter Dollar tells her gut-wrenching story of living with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI)—a disabling genetic bone disorder that was passed down to her first child—and deciding whether to conceive a second child who would not have OI using assisted reproduction. Her story brings to light the ethical dilemmas surrounding advanced reproductive technologies. What do procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) say about how we define human worth? If we avoid such procedures, are we permitting the suffering of our children? How do we identify a "good life" in a consumer society that values appearance, success, health, and perfection?

Dollar considers multiple sides of the debate, refusing to accept the matter as simply black and white. Her book will help parents who want to understand and make good decisions about assisted reproduction, as well as those who support and counsel them, including pastors and medical professionals.

About this title

About the Author

Ellen Painter Dollar is a writer and mother of three living in West Hartford, Connecticut. She has written about faith, motherhood, and disability for a variety of organizations, publications, and blogs, including Christianity Today, the American Medical Association, the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation, the Hartford Courant, and the Episcopal Cafe. She currently blogs at Patheos.com. Visit her Web site at www.ellenpainterdollar.com.

Review

[No Easy Choice] is much more than memoir and more like an extended case study, but not one written by a health care professional or clergy in training. Rather, it turns the tables, and is written by the case herself, a parent of faith carrying a very risky gene who is trying to deal with the worlds of science, theology, and culture. I learned a lot and felt honored to be invited into the intimacy and capacity to deal with that wider intersection that happens at the beginning of life itself.
William C. Gaventa, Associate Professor, The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities , UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and author of Spirituality and Intellectual Disability

This is a most thoroughgoing evaluation of questions that will absorb prospective parents, doctors, pastors, and those who counsel couples about in vitro fertilization and genetic testing. Anyone reading it will come away better informed on such vital choices challenging our culture.
Virginia Stem Owens, author of Caring for Mother: A Daughters Long Goodbye

In No Easy Choice, Ellen Painter Dollar sets out to provide a guide for Christians considering reproductive technology. She succeeds, and then some. Weaving together an honest and touching personal narrative with ethical and theological insight, Dollar writes about a complex topic in simple terms. No Easy Choice should provoke thought, prayer, and discussion from any Christian who wants to engage the most pressing ethical concerns of the 21st century.
Amy Julia Becker, author of A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny

Ellen Painter Dollar is a consummate storyteller with a consuming story to tell. She is also a gifted journalist. In No Easy Choice, she has combined those skills to produce a gripping account of her familys engagement with one of the pressing questions of our time. Chock full of informed and candid insights, this one is a page turner.
Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why

No Easy Choice is a painfully wise book about the pain of having children whose life will be filled with pain. It is also a book of hope because its author never tries to say more than can be said about why some children are so born. This is a must read, not only for those considering prenatal genetic diagnosis and intervention, but for all concerned with the ethics of PGD. Its a terrific book.
Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School, and author of God, Medicine, and the Problem of Suffering

"The book is both a challenge and a blessing for those who see the beauty that human disability brings to the world and the deep and troubling truths that it reveals about our societies. Moving, touching, personal, and filled with deep Christian spirituality, Dollars book will move hearts and make a difference."
John Swinton, Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen

This book is a welcome antidote to dry academic reflection on the ethics of PGD. The author walks us through her difficult decisions about using reproductive technologies in the face of having her children inherit a painful medical condition, cutting through the certitudes of those who do not have to face these choices themselves. Those pondering the use of reproductive technologies and those concerned with the ethics of these technologies can both benefit from reading this book.
John H. Evans, Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, and author of Contested Reproduction: Genetic Technologies, Religion and Public Debate

It is definitely an easy choice to recommend No Easy Choice to Christians, all people of faith, and anyone else wrestling with parenting and living with disability in our technological age!
Amos Yong, Professor of Theology, Regent University, and author of The Bible, Disability, and the Church

"I am grateful for Dollar's skill and honesty as a writer, and moved by her story that is so clearly marked by truth and grace. I urge everyone who cares about Christian faithfulness in our time to read, ponder, and share this book."
Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling

"Prepare yourself for a compelling, moving, and difficult journey. Elegantly written, this is a book of sheer genius born out of a story of pain, complexity, and faithfulness. This is book worth reading and rereading."
Ian S. Markham, Dean and President, Virginia Theological Seminary

Edition details

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0664236901
• ISBN 13: 9780664236908
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 210