The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction

Within 40 years many people will stop having sex for reproduction. After IVF and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, parents will pick embryos for implantation, gestation, and birth. It will be easy, safe, lawful, and free, Henry Greely predicts. He explains the new technologies and sets out the deep ethical and legal challenges facing humanity.

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Within twenty, maybe forty, years most people in developed countries will stop having sex for the purpose of reproduction. Instead, prospective parents will be told as much as they wish to know about the genetic makeup of dozens of embryos, and they will pick one or two for implantation, gestation, and birth. And it will be safe, lawful, easy, and free. In this work of prophetic scholarship, Henry T. Greely explains the revolutionary biological technologies that make this future a seeming inevitability and sets out the deep ethical and legal challenges humanity faces as a result. The first child born after preimplantation genetic diagnosis and in vitro fertilization is now 25 years old, and thousands more are born each year. Advanced by economic, social, legal, and political forces, the emerging science has made the concerns that were once the stuff of science fiction into real ethical problems that our children and grandchildren will face routinely.
Deeply informed by Greely's command of both science and law, The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction is a book for parents, citizens, and all those, born and unborn, who will face the consequences of a new era of human reproduction.