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| The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception | 
 enlarge | Author: Debora L. Spar
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Discount Category: Book
Selling Price: $26.95
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Customer Ratings:  7 comments
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 302
Shipping Weight (pounds): 1.4
Dimensions (inch): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1591396204
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.198178
EAN: 9781591396208
Publication Date: February 14, 2006
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 Fabulously Informative and Unemotional April 12, 2008
I love this book for what it is. Some other reviers commented on the Stoic nature of the work. They are accurate about that. However, that is why I like it. The book isn't meant to say what's right or wrong or make judgements. The author does raise some ethical and moral questions but makes no attempt to answer them. As someone who has spent some time on the infertility hamster wheel and also has a background in Economics, I found this book fabulous. It is very dense, containing a very informative mix of economics, history and science. It is all about the market for babies.
 Clear-eyed Analysis of the Infertility World July 4, 2007
Unlike so many books in this field, Ms. Spar does not fall into the trap of sensationalism. Of all of the books I've read on this technology and its impact on society, it is the best.
 Mere markets? September 20, 2006
5 out of 6 found this comment useful.
The fact that this book is published by the Harvard Business School and the author is a professor there tells us much about how this topic is broached. The main focus of the book is on how the infertility industry (the baby business) and the market interact. Other vital elements, such as moral considerations, are barely mentioned. And this is where the book breaks down. Yes, the market side to the question is very important, and rightly needs to be explored, but taken out of a bigger social and ethical context, the approach comes across barren and empty (no pun intended).
Spar quickly dismisses ethical concerns, arguing that they are messy, controversial, and incapable of any resolution. Thus her focus is single: to see how the desire for babies fits in with the world of trade and commerce. And her premises are not easily gainsaid: people desire to have babies (and/or baby parts, or services, or technologies) and there are many who are happy to provide these things, especially for a price. It is as simple as that: supply and demand.
Economically speaking, as Spar keeps noting, it is a match made in heaven. This trade in babies is therefore inevitable and here to stay, she argues. The horse has bolted, and there is no going back to the stable now. We must live with the new reproductive technologies, and their inevitable commercialization. The only question is whether the baby market should be open slather, or whether some sort of regulatory scheme should be put in place.
The bulk of this book examines the various areas of the baby trade - be it IVF, surrogacy, sperm and egg selling, cloning and the like - and how money has been invariably linked to the fertility industry.
Of course this book describes the situation in the US, where there is very little government regulation at all over the fertility business. Other nations do have regulatory schemes in place, which the author refers to now and then. But it is the wild west of the American fertility trade that is in focus here.
Spar believes that the market will always be part of this industry, and that it is not a bad thing at all. But she recognizes that as the "product" in discussion is a human baby, many are reluctant to speak of it all in purely financial terms. She occasionally acknowledges the critics, like Leon Kass, who see much of the reproductive industry as involved in the commodification of children and the manufacture of life, but seems little impressed by their concerns.
Indeed, she says early on that the market will always triumph, while issues of morality will remain unresolved, and by implication, be of secondary importance. Thus she simply accepts the reproductive revolution and Big Biotech as necessary, inevitable forces that will not go away. Don't worry about the ethical concerns, she seems to suggest. Instead, given the inevitability of the market in this area, the only real issue is what kind of regulation, if any, do we want applied. The topic of regulation she only addresses briefly, and in her final chapter.
She in fact claims not to have any clear answers here. She does state her preference, a "light-handed regulatory regime" in which choice, information and costs are considered. She recognizes that there may be a dark side to an unchecked market, especially in some of the `yuk' areas like human cloning, but she seems to think the market as a whole, with a little help from the government, will largely get things right.
Thus she is optimistic about both the science and economics of the reproductive revolution. Many others, of course, are worried about the brave new world implications of where all this is headed. Spar here and there acknowledges these concerns, but generally sees them as irrelevant or of no great consequence. Of course such considerations are too controversial for many to even raise. Indeed, free marketers will be squeamish about such discussions. But they are nonetheless part of the equation.
Indeed, the traditional philosophical, spiritual and social implications are as much a part of this discussion as mere market concerns. So for a more inclusive and well-rounded discussion of these issues, the reader needs to go elsewhere.
But if the reader wants a simple overview and history of the new reproductive technologies, and their economic implications, this book is undoubtedly a good place to begin.
The Birth of the Scholarly Page Turner March 30, 2006
6 out of 8 found this comment useful.
This is good stuff-if not juicy, and Spar casts a wide net that doesn't miss a thing: conception techniques, fertility markets, surrogacy, designer babies, human cloning, and adoption. The writer also has the guts to have a lucid, constructive point of view-never backing away from the controversial subjects many would balk about discussing. This book is a must read for anyone who might, is, or has gone through any of the processes above, and for the rest of us like me, just a great eye-opening read. In fact, I kept thinking as the pages turned: "I had no idea..." As a piece of scholarly writing it is immaculate (check out the pages of footnotes!), but more impressive is the fact that Spar's writing style is trenchant, entertaining and unwavering in it's ability to present a point of view to the reader. I wasn't expecting it, but Spar continually challenges and provokes as she weaves her riveting tale of the dynamics of a topic-both moral and technical-that is dear to the hearts of us all: babies. Wow. A scholarly page-turner!? Shouldn't there be an award for that? It's great read, and I highly recommend it.
Informative book, but problems in adoption industry overlooked March 9, 2006
This was a very informative book, and I'm glad I bought it. However, the chapter on adoption glossed over the serious problems with the U.S. adoption industry. The book says that "adoption works." It may work for the baby-buyers and baby-sellers, but evidence shows it does not work well for mothers who are separated from their children by adoption. The book also implies that mothers choose to surrender their children for adoption, when in fact, most mothers who surrender their children to adoption believe that they have no other options, are uninformed about their options for keeping their child, are uninformed about the consequences of adoption, and/or are pressured or coerced to surrender. While the adoption industry provides privileged women with the choice of aquiring someone else's baby, it takes away poor women's choice to keep their child. See www.OriginsUSA.org and http://www.originscanada.org/adoption_coercion.html
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