When Anne Else married at the age of 19, she had never cooked a meal, despite having grown up above a grocery shop. That shaky start notwithstanding, she went on to become an enthusiastic cook—with a bit of help from Elizabeth David, Nancy Spain, Katharine Whitehorn, and the Duchess of Windsor. In this captivating memoir, Else recounts the story of her life, from her first marriage and motherhood; through becoming a feminist, divorcing, remarrying, finding her birth mother, and the heartbr...

A Question of Adoption gives a richly detailed, immensely readable account of the ideology and practice of closed stranger adoption in New Zealand, from pregnancy through to the final adoption order and its aftermath. Anne Else’s scrupulous, moving narrative explores social and moral attitudes towards ‘unmarried mothers’, ‘unwanted children’ and ‘childless couples’ during the 1950s and 1960s. She shows how the resulting system took shape, how it worked (or failed to work), and its lifelong...

A provocative and debate-inspiring book which explores the pressure, politics, philosophy and culture of motherhood in today’s society.Motherhood has changed. For several decades there has been tension between traditional ideas and modern values of mothering. For years the trend was away from the constraints which bound down our own mothers and towards liberating women. But in the 1980s and 1990s the momentum has shifted into sharp reverse.Mother of All Myths documents the ...

Winner, 2022 PSA Women's Caucus Prize in Feminist Philosophy of Science AwardThe public has voiced concern over the adverse effects of vaccines from the moment Dr. Edward Jenner introduced the first smallpox vaccine in 1796. The controversy over childhood immunization intensified in 1998, when Dr. Andrew Wakefield linked the MMR vaccine to autism. Although Wakefield’s findings were later discredited and retracted, and medical and scientific evidence suggests routine immunizations h...

Winner of the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language Although Roe v. Wade identified abortion as a constitutional right in1973, it still bears stigma--a proverbial scarlet A. Millions of Americans have participated in or benefited from an abortion, but few want to reveal that they have done so. Approximately one in five pregnancies in the US ends in abortion. Why is something so common, which has been leg...

Law and the Technologies of the Twenty-First Century provides a contextual account of the way in which law functions in a broader regulatory environment across different jurisdictions. It identifies and clearly structures the four key challenges that technology poses to regulatory efforts, distinguishing between technology as a regulatory target and tool, and guiding the reader through an emerging field that is subject to rapid change. By extensive use of examples and extracts from the tex...

This revised and updated edition of the 2016 bestselling work sets out the moral arguments for a woman’s right to decide the future of her pregnancy. Drawing on traditions of philosophical and sociological thinking, it presents the case for recognizing autonomy in personal, private decision-making about reproductive intentions. Further, it argues that to prevent a woman making this decision according to her own values is to undermine the essence of her humanity. The author explores how tru...

Like advances in many fields, those involving genetics bring both benefits and dangers to society. Among the promised benefits is the ability to identify health issues earlier than is now the case and the improve the prospects of successful prevention and treatment. In addition, forensic applications of genetic technologies have proven a powerful tool of criminal investigation. The dangers of genetic technology lie in its ability to provide extensive and highly sensitive information about...

The development of new reproductive technologies has raised urgent questions and debates about how and by whom these treatments should be controlled. On the one hand individuals and groups have claimed access to assisted reproduction as a right, and some have also claimed that this access should be available free of charge. As well as clinically infertile heterosexual couples, this right has been claimed by single women, gay couples, post-menopausal women, and couples who wish to delay hav...

There is an increasing demand for gestational surrogacy in current reproductive medicine practice. Infertile couples often engage overseas surrogates, which increases the risk for legal and ethical complications. This book provides clinical guidance on the provision of gestational surrogacy on a worldwide basis, with brief summaries of the legal position within countries where it is offered. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of surrogacy for clinicians, counsellors, attorneys, ...

Is the experience of childbirth becoming 'globalised'?Is the encroachment of the western medical model dehumanising a profoundly human experience?If so, what can midwives and midwife educators do about it?These are the questions at the heart of Childbirth in the Global Village which highlights the role that globalisation plays in changing childbirth practices and its implications for midwifery practice and education.Built around the vivid personal stor...