Designing Babies

No other subject in science today provokes more controversy than human reproduction and genetics. Our increasing ability to manipulate fertility and shape our genetic destiny raises many questions both practical and ethical and creates an equal amount of hope and fear for the future.

In Designing Babies, reproductive expert Roger Gosden provides a compelling overview of this biological revolution. In clear, non-technical language, he explains the science that is emerging and addresses the many social and ethical dilemmas involved. He also offers a startling look into a foreseeable future where fertility will be a matter of choice, genes will be screened and genetic defects repaired prenatally, cloning technology will become more powerful, and parents will be able to choose the sex of their child. Designing Babies explores these and other issues intelligently, with an open-minded approach towards the dangers and benefits such scientific advances might bring.

For better or worse, the human race has co-opted science and technology in its powerful drive to reproduce. Separating the real facts from tabloid fallacies, Designing Babies is a genuinely productive voice in the debate about one of the most contentious and important issues of our day.

Roger Gosden began his research career in Cambridge, England, under the test-tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards. In 1976, he moved to the University of Edinburgh Medical School where he lectured in physiology for 18 years. He has worked at the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, the Andrus Gerontology Center in Los Angeles, and is currently Professor of Reproductive Biology at the University of Leeds. He is the author of Cheating Time: Science, Sex, and Aging.