Summer reading list
Spending some time on a dock or porch or plane? Pack these excellent articles along.
Laura Lippman. "Game of Crones." Longreads.
It wasn't entirely Laura Lippman's idea to become a mother in her 50s. But when it happened, she leaned in hard.
Eli Baden-Lasar. "A family portrait: brothers, sisters, strangers." New York Times Magazine.
I always knew I was conceived using a sperm donor. But I was 19 before I discovered I had half siblings. Then I went searching -- for all 32 of them.
Erin Handley. "Cambodian surrogates face an impossible choice -- forced motherhood, or years in prison." Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Shira Rubin. "Becoming Dad After Death." UnDark.
In Israel, the right to a posthumously conceived child is increasingly being granted not just to partners, but to parents of the deceased.
Sarah Zhang. "The Fertility Doctor's Secret." The Atlantic.
Donald Cline must have thought no one would ever know. Then DNA testing came along.
Katy Lindemann. "The craziest things I did in the name of infertility." Metro News.
Jacqueline Mroz. "Their children were conceived with donated sperm. It was the wrong sperm." New York Times Magazine.
As genetic testing becomes more widespread, parents are finding that sperm used in artificial insemination did not come from the donors they chose.
Richard Godwin. "The rise of Big Sperm: Does the tech world have the answer to our semen crisis?" The Guardian.
Sperm counts in western men are falling, and nobody is sure why. But relax – because help is here, with everything from home-testing kits to sperm-freezing.
And in case you missed these when I shared them in earlier posts:
Sharon Begley. "The CRISPR shocker: How genome-editing scientist He Jiankui rose from obscurity to stun the world." STAT.
Melanie Thernstrom. "Meet the Twiblings." New York Times Magazine.
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Books
In my first post of 2020, I will publish a book list. If there’s a book you have read — or written — that you think I should know about, contact me: alison.motluk@gmail.com.
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Email me at alison.motluk@gmail.com.
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