Customer Reviews

Making Babies: Is There a Right to Have Children?

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Mary Warnock undertakes a large but manageable task in discussing the issues surrounding 'Making Babies' and delivers an impressive summary. Warnock treats issue with compassion, fairness and careful consideration, making it difficult to disagree with her conclusions. She is clearly very well informed on the subject and uses her wealth of knowledge on the subject to make fair judgements. An enjoyable, thought-provoking read which proved very helpful in reaching a personal ethical opinion on the issue of 'Making Babies'

Mary Warnock sensibly navigates the ethical questions surrounding assisted human reproduction. She concludes there is no right to have children...

...but that for those who feel an intense desire to rear their own biological offspring, the medical profession is well within its compassionate mission to assist. She offers carefully balanced assessments of the grounds from which human rights arise and the implications of them.

Her closing argument against the language of rights is compelling, "I would deplore any tendency for people to become so much obsessed with their right to have a child...that they forget the old sense of astonishment and gratitude that came with the birth of a child. Gratitude to whom? Well, to God or nature, or the midwife or the doctor, or the principle of continuity and the renewal of life itself. It does not matter. But...gratitude is something you do not feel when all you have got is what is owed."

Warnock considers assertions that assisted reproduction as used by couples, single-parents, and gay/lesbian parents harms others, offering useful commentary on the vital issue of the good of the child. She further addresses hot-button topics including cloning and allegations that assisted reproduction is akin to "playing God."

She navigates a complex issue, arriving at a rational position that generally supports the would-be parent's pursuit of assisted reproduction. Her qualifications to comment arise from her thorough understanding of the topic, her work as an ethicist/philosopher, and particularly her ongoing leadership and involvement in the UK's public discussion around assisted reproduction.

At just over 100-pages, Warnock's text makes for a quick and thoughtful read. As a father of three, all concieved via IVF, I enjoyed her book both for her thoughtful treatment and her conclusions.