Legal Conceptions: The Evolving Law and Policy of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (review)

Reading history through the eyes of history makers is a formula poised to deliver reader satisfaction. Such is the case with the compendium-styled Legal Conceptions: The Evolving Law and Policy of Assisted Reproductive Technologies, by Susan L. Crockin and Howard W. Jones, Jr., a comprehensive title documenting and analyzing the first three decades of family formation via assisted reproductive technology (ART). Since the birth of the world's first so-called "test-tube baby" in 1978,¹ medicine, law, ethics, and policy have regularly converged to address the myriad questions raised when a child is conceived and born outside the traditional two-party reproductive structure involving one man, one woman, one act. Today, with nearly three of every 100 children born in the United States the product of assisted conception,² Crockin and Jones supply a welcome and user-friendly reference for puzzling through the past, present, and future of the burgeoning ART world.

In what can strike the casual observer as a dizzying array of publications in the field, ranging from the earnest academic tome to the sensational magazinery that adorn the nation's supermarkets, Legal Conceptions distinguishes itself by the professionalism displayed in its content and by its authors. Dr. Howard Jones, a truly legendary figure in the reproductive medicine field whose approaching 100th birthday garnered the attention of the New York Times (Epstein 2010), is well known in ART circles for establishing the nation's first IVF clinic. The Jones Institute at Eastern Virginia Medical School, stewarded by Jones and his late wife, Dr. Georgeanna Seeger Jones, opened its doors in 1980 and welcomed America's first IVF-conceived baby, Elizabeth Carr, in December 1981. Jones regales us with tales of angry picketers and libelous editorials that plagued his early days as an IVF-provider, a career he continues to enjoy to this day.

The designation "pioneer," apt to describe Jones in the medical ART world, is equally appropriate as applied to Susan Crockin in legal circles. In 1990, Crockin began a first-of-its-kind column devoted to reporting and analyzing legal developments involving reproductive technologies. Styled "Legally Speaking," the column appeared in the regular newsletter published by the American Fertility Society (now the American Society for Reproductive Medicine), alerting the ART community to virtually every law-related happening worldwide. For the past two decades, "Legally Speaking" has been a must-read for ART watchers, as no other source provides the comprehensive, timely, and sophisticated insight that Crockin consistently delivers.

Given their independent prowess, it is no surprise that the Jones/Crockin partnership has produced a thorough, coherent, and impactful book chronicling the medical and legal landmarks that dot the ART landscape. The work is encyclopedic in its coverage, touching on virtually every ART-related story of legal note over the past 20 years. Yet the comprehensive coverage is readily approachable, offered in logical and digestible segments. Each chapter proceeds in more-or-less chronological fashion, tracking the selected topic through edited reprints of Crockin's real-time "Legally Speaking" columns. The reader can easily follow the event or case from start to finish, as the authors provide updates or addendums where the tale has received less than complete treatment in the columns.

Structurally, the book is divided into 12 chapters, each revolving around a medical procedure or practice that enables individuals or couples to become parents by means other than sexual intercourse. The now well-known use of sperm donation, egg donation, and traditional and gestational surrogacy arrangements serve as chapters, along with lesser-known technologies including preimplantation genetic diagnosis, embryonic stem-cell research, and posthumous reproduction. Every conceivable (pun intended) configuration of assisted conception is touched upon, from the same-sex lesbian couple who enlists the aid of a known sperm donor, to the single man who commissions a gestational surrogate to house a donated embryo, to the grieving parents who...