This title shows how reproduction technology is changing the meaning of life. In 1978, by chance, and chance alone, from dozens of women in the first trials of IVF, the first IVF child was born in Bristol, and the possibilities for women and men hoping to have children changed forever. Nearly thirty years later an estimated eighty million people now suffer from infertility worldwide, and the technology that can help them increases all the time.In "Everything Conceivable", Liza Mundy explores the meanings and ramifications of the changes in the way we make babies. The first journalist to explore this subject in depth, she explores the workings of the fertility drugs industry, gay families, surrogate mothers, egg donors, the increasing number of twins and much more through the stories of those intimately involved. "Everything Conceivable" also brings into focus a new truth: for the first time in human history we are now able to cheat evolution. As our society is changed by baby-making technology, what decisions could and should be made by the families involved, the Christian right, the women's groups and society as a whole? As the meanings of life, birth, parents and family change, what are the real effects of the reproduction revolution?

Author Biography

Liza Mundy is an award-winning journalist at the Washington Post. She has been writing on the issues and questions around assisted reproduction for the Washington Post, Slate and others for the past two years. She was selected by Oliver Sacks for inclusion in The Best American Science Writing in 2003.