Clone Age: Adventures in the New World of Reproductive Technology
Addresses profound & disturbing questions, such as: Is a human embryo property, a person, or something else entirely? Should parents be able to buy genes for superior traits for their children? Not only can people clone themselves with legal impunity, but if a stranger wanted to make a clone of you — say, from hair follicles collected at the barbershop — you couldn’t stop him. Unmasks the bizarre motives & methods of a new breed of doctors & scientists & addresses the wrenching issues we face as venture capital floods med. research, technology races ahead of legal & ethical ground rules, & ordinary people struggle to maintain both human dignity & their own emotional balance. ”A painful account of the medical exploitation of women & the tragic consequences.”Yesterday’s science fiction is today’s litigation, and nobody knows that better than Lori B. Andrews, an attorney specializing in genetic and reproductive technology. Her book The Clone Age is a personal look at the sweeping … More >>
Clone Age: Adventures in the New World of Reproductive Technology
Tagged with: Adventures • Clone • Reproductive • Technology • World
You might think that a law professor and female bioethicist would share some legal insights and be sympathetic to infertile women, but Prof. Andrews is neither. Did she right this book too fast for the money? To cash in on news about cloning? Appears so. She has nothing much to say.
I am a medical student and a law student. We read this book in a 1-week special course and I was very disappointed. Every case from the newspapers and talk shows is in here, but with no legal or medical insight: it’s all “Tsk, tsk” and “please ban.” A high school kid could’ve written.
Would you want to be cloned…with or without your consent? “The Clone Age” by lawyer/author Lori B. Andrews examines controversies inside the 2 billion dollar a year fertility industry. Some of the revelations might be topics for tv talk shows..a Chinese scientist who fertilized a female chimp with human sperm to try to create a super-ape, an IVF clinic in the Netherlands that accidentally mixed sperm of two men together, resulting in twins of different races, eggs and sperm for sale on the internet, artificial wombs in Japan, children being born from dead donors, fertility labs ofering “genetically enhanced” babies, ads for brainy college girls to “donate” eggs at $35,000 an egg or up and the most chilling, a patient whose blood and cells were marketed to the biotech industry without his knowledge or consent. The abuses seem endless. Andrews, once a champion of reproductive rights, seems to feel responsible for this sorry state of affairs. In her book, she apologizes for her role in having made reproductive technologists “invincible” and like a congregant in a confession box, offers to make amends by calling for a ban on cloning. She writes: “Facing human cloning was like greeting the Frankenstein monster for the first time. The creation had gone amok. I needed to draw the line here to atone.” Nothing startling is offered in the surrogacy chapter, offensively titled, “Wombs for Rent.” Andrews does acknowledge surrogacy’s high success rate saying, “While 75% of the biological mothers who give up a child for adoption later change their minds, only around 1% of the surrogates have similar changes of heart.” (The actual figure, from court files, is 1/4 of 1%). And though Andrews still seems to support compensation for surrogates, she worries that they might be tempted to carry multiples for twice or three times their usual fee. However, no evidence is offered that such a deal has ever been struck. The surrogacy chapter draws heavily from Between Strangers, an earlier work about the role of politics in shaping public policy against surrogacy in New York, Michigan and other states. The Baby M case is revisited as well as several other controversial court cases involving a (dead)lawyer, Noel Keane. Two California parentage disputes are also examined. Who should be the mother in these cases? In previous books, Andrews favored the intended parents. In “The Clone Age,” however, her position is not so clear. While acknowledging that letting surrogates change their mind can place a baby in legal limbo for years to come, she says only: “State legislatures need to provide protections for all the participants in surrogate mother arrangements.” Later in the book, Andrews gives law professor, Arthur Caplan, space to recite his favorite disaster story about a Keane client in Pennsylvania who beat his newborn to death. Caplan asks: “If that hasn’t prompted regulation, what will?” However, Caplan still doesn’t seem to understand this was a homocide case, not a custody dispute. Though she raises compelling questions about where our society is going with reproductive technology, Andrews winds up throwing the baby out with the bath water by suggesting that the U.S. might want to debate the introduction of new technologies by modelling after the Royal Commission on Reproductive and Genetic Technologies in Canada. That group spent 2 years and the equivalent of 22 million dollars to conclude that a number of technologies (paid surrogacy included) should be banned. According to Andrews, the report reflected Canada’s “shared cultural values.” However, the issue may have more to do with saving Canada’s health care system money. According to press reports, the Royal Commission (appointed by the Health Minister) had as its head Dr. Patricia Baird, a critic of surrogacy and other technol- ogies. According to the reports, Baird fired five members of her own committee for “challenging her authority.” With all due respect to Lori, who I have worked with in the past, do we here in the U.S. really want to model a debate on reproduction after a country whose “shared values” wouldn’t allow paid surrogacy and other technologies but allows the clubbing of baby seals for commercial purposes? I don’t know about you but if I had to choose, I’d rather be cloned than clubbed.
This book arrived promptly. I was very dissatisfied with the condition on this book. It was listed as “Good Condition” it was “Fair Condition” at best. There was extensive underlining, highlighting and writing in the margins. I immediately emailed this sell (mid March) and have yet to get a response. This seller was not the lowest price, I chose them due to their geographic location for quick shipping. I will not use this seller again.
This book not only was an eye opener, but it made me mad. I can’t believe people (researchers) would be so selfish and money hungry that they would jepordize the lives of women and unborn children. It reminds me of what Hitler wanted to do- selective breeding.
I do think couples who can’t have children be afforded the opportunity to have kids- but do they really know what they are getting into with IVF and genetically engineered children.
This book is a must read so that you know what is going on in the name of science. Ms Andrews- a lawyer discusses legal aspects, ethical issues and medical exploitation. A very easy read.
Do you know what your doctor’s are doing to you?