Annual book list 2020
Welcome to the 2020 season of HeyReprotech. Thank you all — old subscribers and new — for being here to continue the conversation.
As in previous years, HeyReprotech will appear in your inbox every Tuesday at 10:30am Toronto time and will briefly highlight a single issue relating to assisted reproduction and its ripple effects.
I want to take a minute to thank all the people who have reached out to me over the past months with ideas, leads and details for stories. I value your input greatly. I also want to thank those of you who have taken the time to share words of encouragement. It means a lot. Finally, a special group of you have decided to show your support by becoming paying subscribers, and I am truly grateful to you.
As it happens, this first newsletter of the year coincides with the coming into force of new regulations regarding sperm and eggs in this country. For those of you who haven't followed the drama, and are mildly curious what all the fuss is about, what you need to know is that Canada has waited a long time for these regulations. The law was passed in 2004 — around the time Facebook was invented — and we're just getting the regulations now. If you are interested in knowing more about what safety measures will be coming into play as of today, you can check out the government's guidance document; also, see my take on what could change going forward. If you want to read about one of the weirdnesses that has since been put to rest, check out this old story on why eggs were taxed but not sperm.
As exciting as all this may be, I'd like once again to dedicate the first post of the year to a book list. All of the books below touch on some aspect of assisted reproduction, infertility or the meaning of family. Enjoy.
Book Club
2020 and 2019
Wendy Kramer. Donor Family Matters: My story of raising a profoundly gifted donor-conceived child, redefining family, and building the Donor Sibling Registry. 2020.
Francoise Baylis. Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the ethics of human genome editing. 2019.
Erik Parens and Josephine Johnston. Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing. 2019.
Dov Fox. Birth Rights and Wrongs: How Medicine and Technology are Remaking Reproduction and the Law. 2019.
Catherine Waldby. The Oocyte Economy: The Changing Meaning of Human Eggs. 2019.
Jennifer Lahl, Melinda Tankard Reist and Renate Klein. Broken Bonds: Surrogate Mothers Speak Out. 2019.
Kylie Baldwin. Egg Freezing, Fertility and Reproductive Choice: Negotiating Responsibility, Hope and Modern Motherhood. 2019. (Note: the ebook is open access.)
Jennifer Block. Everything Below the Waist: Why Healthcare Needs a Feminist Revolution. 2019.
Marna Gatlin and Carole LieberWilkins. Let's Talk About Egg Donation: Real Stories from Real People. 2019.
Jenny Heijun Wills. Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related. 2019.
Joanne Ramos. The Farm. 2019.
Alexandra Kimball. The Seed: Infertility is a Feminist Issue. 2019.
Dorette Noorhasan. Miracle Baby: A Fertility Doctor's Fight for Motherhood. 2019.
Dani Shapiro. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love. 2019
Francesca Scala. Delivering Policy: The Contested Politics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Canada. 2019.
2018 and earlier
Rosanna Hertz and Margaret Nelson. Random Families: Genetic Strangers, Sperm Donor Siblings, and the Creation of New Kin. 2018.
Erin Heidt-Forsythe. Between Families and Frankenstein: The Politics of Egg Donation in the United States. 2018.
Tim Antonides. Rain. 2018.
Allison McDonald Ace, Ariel Ng Bourbonnais and Caroline Starr. Through, Not Around: Stories of Infertility and Pregnancy Loss. 2018.
Diane Tober. Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families. 2018.
Vanessa Gruben, Alana Cattapan and Angela Cameron, eds. Surrogacy in Canada: Critical Perspectives in Law and Policy. 2018.
Dave Snow. Assisted Reproduction Policy in Canada: Framing, Federalism and Failure. 2018.
Wendy Kramer. Your Family: A Donor Kid's Story. 2018.
Mary Ann Mason and Tom Ekman. Assisted Reproduction and the Rights of the Child. 2017.
Judith Daar. The New Eugenics: Selective Breeding in an Era of Reproductive Technologies. 2017.
Hank Greely. The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction. 2016.
Louise Brown and Martin Powell. Louise Brown: My Life As The World's First Test-Tube Baby. 2015.
Kajsa Ekis Ekman. Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self. 2014.
The Boston Women's Health Book Collective. Our Bodies, Ourselves. 2011.
Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos. Silent Sorority: A Barren Woman Gets Busy, Angry, Lost and Found. 2009.
Debora L. Spar. The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception. 2006.
Robin Marantz Henig. Pandora's Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive Revolution. 2004.
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Get in touch on email: alison.motluk@gmail.com
Find me on Twitter: @AlisonMotluk @HeyReprotech
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