Pandora's Clock: Understanding Our Fertility - The Choices We Face Over Contraception, Pregnancy, Genetic Screening, Abortion and Infertility Book

Fertility has always been a political issue, but, arguably, never so fraught as it is today. Abortion, population control, genetic engineering and fathers' rights dominate the headlines. Yet safe and reliable contraception has widened our choices of when, where and with whom we have our children. Why does the decision to have a baby remain such a difficult one? This text sets out to provide a framework for considering the issue. In addition to providing the basic facts, it calls into question current attitudes and figures of speech that cloud rather than clarify the subject. Is there such a thing as a fertility rate? Is the biological clock a useful or misleading metaphor? How often are decisions to have children joint and above board? Who has the final say and who takes the blame? How do people who have no children or too many manage their regrets? The authors have talked to men and women across a broad spectrum of class, race, religion and age in their search to understand how we really plan our children. Their aim is to break down the taboos and promote a respectful understanding of fertility and its finiteness.Read More