Manufacture of Children / La Fabrication des enfants: Un vertige technologique

François Ansermet is a psychoanalyst, a member of the French National Bioethics Advisory Committee, a professor of child psychiatry at the University of Geneva, the director of the University's Psychiatry Department and head of child and Adolescent Psychiatry for Geneva's university hospitals. He is the co-author, with Pierre Magistretti, of "A chacun son cerveau" and "Les EnI'mes du plaisir", both published by Editions Odile Jacob. The birth of a child may now involve quite a crowd, besides the usual two parents. There may be a surrogate mother, a sperm donor, an egg donor, a womb donor in uterine transplant cases - not to mention the numerous physicians and biologists specialising in procreation. Are we on the verge of completely medicalising human reproduction? Will childbirth no longer result from chance encounters and iedividual choices? How far can and will we take assisted reproductive technology (ART)? François Ansermet argues that we should not succumb to a fascination with technology, but neither should we reject the times we live in. We must rise to the challenge of biotechnology by learning to deal with the latest developments of our age, whatever the difficulties.- A presentation of actual cases and of the latest artificial reproductive techniques.- Carefully argued standpoints on such controversial issues as surrogacy, pre-implantation diagnosis, and gamete cryopreservation.- An examination of an issue that engages the future of our children and of our society.