Modern Dilemma : Choosing Children

by Sheila McLean
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Saviour siblings, sex selection, reproductive cloning, children free from genetic disorder and children with enhanced genes: has reproductive science reached beyond the bounds of what the human sense of morality can accept?
Sheila McLean believes unreservedly - and argues defiantly, unflinchingly and succinctly - that the assisted reproduction revolution is one which works for the greater good, and which cannot, and should not, be reversed.
Whilst maintaining that intending parents should have the right to make decisions at the pre-implantation stage, laying down her case for a radical libertarian approach to reproduction in the 21st century, Sheila McLean's real mastery lies in her balance of her personal views, and those of her opponents.

Professor Sheila McLean is the first holder of the International Bar Association Chair of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University and is Director of the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University.

"I have read and much enjoyed Sheila McLean's book, Modern Dilemmas Choosing Children. Her book is a worthy offspring of J.S.Mill's On Liberty. She believes that the State has no business to intrude in the highly personal matter of deciding whether to have children or not, and how to give those children what seems the best possible chance of a good life, by using modern technology, such as preimplantation selection of embryos. She rightly argues that the case for regulation based on the dread Slippery Slope is purely speculative, and should not be given the weight it was in the cautious early days, when the HFEA was first set up, and everyone was nervous of the new technologies.
Professor McLean, as always, writes forcefully and with wonderful clarity. It is refreshing to hear the voice of liberation and optimism, among all the timid head-shaking and the warnings of doom."
Baroness Warnock

"Though written by an expert for experts, this book will provide an excellent and accessible introduction for ordinary readers to the new field of reprogenetics. It is likely to become the standard guide to the legal and moral complexities of the subject. Though the reader will be in no doubt as to Sheila McLean's own opinion, one of the great virtues of her book is the way it allows competing voices to be heard."
Richard Holloway

"In this important new book, Sheila McLean provides a clear and elegant account of the legal and ethical issues raised by the genetic selection of offsrping, and makes a powerful and persuasive case for the overriding importance of reproductive autonomy."
Emily Jackson
Professor of Medical Law at Queen Mary, University of London

Title	Price	ISBN	Availability
Modern Dilemmas: Choosing Children	£6.99	0-9551246-2-X 9780955124624	August 2006