Ancient urges meet future technology.
A mother and son sit in a reproduction restaurant choosing his ideal gamete partner from an Internet database. A childless couple pay a single mother to carry their child and support the child she already has. A man who is producing no sperm at all conceives with his partner. A bereaved mother commissions a clone of her dead daughter. Two men conceive a child which is carried for them in a friend's womb.
Robin Baker, bestselling author of 'Sperm Wars' and 'Baby Wars', turns his attention to the surprising world of our reproductive futures. As we approach the new millennium, basic biological factors that have shaped our reproductive behaviour for millions of years are suddenly changing in major ways. Through his technique of dramatised scenes, the ways these social and technological changes could influence sexual behaviour and relationships are graphically illustrated.
Baker describes a world where a combination of IVF and surrogate motherhood spells the end of infertility but also the need for men and women to form relationships at all. Men no longer need sperm to reproduce. Families are made up of IVF babies and clones and only those who cannot afford the new technology even think about having a baby the natural way.
The technological developments to trigger these changes are either already with us or only a couple of decades away. It might read like science fiction but for the brave new world of human reproduction it is not a question of if but when.
