Portfolio at NYU

Caroline Binham's Book List

Reasonable Creatures, by Katha Pollitt
Katha Pollitt is a columnist for The Nation, and Reasonable Creatures is a collection of 19 essays that appeared there and in other journals.

The full title of the book is Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, and serves as a good summary. The topics Pollitt discusses are disparate — from the media, to abortion, to the American literary canon — but are all linked by their effect on women. First and foremost, Pollitt is a feminist. This, of course, means different things to different people. To Pollitt, it means: "[those who] answer the question 'Are women human?' with a yes... It's about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, 'the family,' men." The title Reasonable Creatures is taken from a quotation by Mary Wollstonecraft, a proto-feminist.

For each subject, then, she takes a news story such as the Baby M case of the early '90s, when a New Jersey court decided that a surrogate mother had no legal maternity of the child to whom she'd given birth, and writes about it from her own feminist perspective.

Let it not be thought that Pollitt is just opining from the lofty heights of The Nation, however. You can be sure that she does some meticulous reporting; and no one would want to be on the receiving-end of her accusations of intellectual sloppiness. A case in point is her chapter on Katie Roiphe, a 25-year-old Harvard grad student and subsequent media darling who wrote a book that basically dismissed the campus rape epidemic as a feminist conspiracy. Pollitt is merciless in her attack on Roiphe, and has gone into the minutiae of her research, showing where Roiphe was misrepresenting data, quotations, and court cases.

What I like particularly about Pollitt — aside from her style, which is acerbic, witty, challenging and simple all at the same time — is that she takes a topic that is old news, or that everyone is talking about, and spins it in a new way. She talks about "unintended consequences," or the issues behind a news story. For instance, she decries the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, when for the first time The New York Times (along with all the other media) printed the name of the alleged victim, as the ultimate hypocrisy. They would print the name of the victim, along with her lifestyle habits in a high-profile rape case so that the public could "make their own mind up", but would not print Washington sources' names so that the public could decide for themselves this reliability.

Another tactic of Pollitt's is to begin talking about one issue raised in the news and veer off at a completely different angle. For example, in one chapter she opens with the image of a pregnant woman who drinks and takes drugs being arrested for delivering a brain-damaged baby who soon dies. She quickly, yet logically moves to a criticism of the government for not providing women with basic necessities that most other Western countries have: paid maternity leave, a national health care system, and government-funded day care.

This type of argument and treatment of the news makes for fresh and thought-provoking read. Boyd Zenner in Belles Lettres said that Reasonable Creatures "will confirm Katha Pollitt's standing as one of the most incisive, principled, and articulate cultural critics writing today," while Kirsty Milne of the New Statesman & Society said that Pollitt "is living proof that journalism needn't be glib, and feminism needn't be dull."

Life Before Birth, by Robert Edwards
One of the scientists who made the birth of the first "test-tube" baby possible, Dr. Robert Edwards muses on his experiences and the media furor that followed the 1978 birth of Louise Brown in Life Before Birth.

The book's various chapters detail the science of in vitro fertilization in addition to all the research that had to be done prior to 1978. Dr. Edwards also explains the workings of his fertility clinic in Cambridgeshire — what the average couple must go through — as well as the trials and tribulations he had in setting up this clinic for a notoriously poorly funded field of medicine.

The book was written in 1989, when egg donation was a relatively new phenomenon and well before it had become the billion-dollar industry it is today. In any case, Dr. Edwards is writing from a British perspective; one that differs to the American in many instances because of the high amount of government regulation of assisted reproductive technologies in that country.

His writing style is that of the benevolent old professor reminiscing of his life's work and passion: sometimes lofty and high-minded, sometimes arrogant, at times conspiratorial; and also witty. Helping infertile couples have children is obviously a passion for Dr. Edwards, but it is still one that is shrouded in ethical debate. While Dr. Edwards acknowledges this, he has very little patience or understanding of what the opposing arguments are. Admittedly, he comes to the debate as a scientist and never pretends to be anything more than that.

The book was useful to me initially because I was hoping to interview Louise Brown, and therefore would have been talking to Dr. Edwards as well. The book mentions the Brown family a great deal, from the suffering of the parents before the creation of Louise, to the birth of Louise's little sister, also through I.V.F. The two girls kept in touch with Dr. Edwards and Dr. Steptoe (the surgeon who performed the operation) throughout their childhood, as one would a godparent. Even though this article did not come to fruition, the book still proved helpful because it is full of medical facts and explains in non-academic language what exactly happens at fertility clinics. Egg donation hasn't changed substantially as a medical procedure since 1989. If you're going to report on medical topics, you at least need to understand what's going on, or there is no hope for your reader.

Fertility Policy in Israel, by Jacqueline Portugese
In this cultural study, Portugese (a researcher and policy analyst for the Canadian government) tracks the social, political and religious impact of Israel's fertility policy. She argues that Israel has always been a pronatalist state, and one in which religion and secular culture / politics has always existed in an uneasy balance. The main drive, Portugese argues, has been to create more Jewish babies while trying to limit the number of Arab births. This in itself has both religious and political implications.

Portugese tracks the modern history of Israel from a feminist perspective, showing how women's bodies have been controlled and how the government has taken an active interest in the population rate (today, Israel has the highest number of fertility clinics per capita in the world). Portugese also explains well what the various halachic laws on fertility are.

Her style is somewhat academic but it is easy to understand and her arguments are presented in a logical way.

The book was useful to me in many ways while I was writing an article on "What makes an Egg Jewish?" My article dealt with questions of Jewish identity as well as halachic rulings on egg donation, and my premise was that Jewish identity is not a simple religious grouping, but one that crosses cultural and ethnic boundaries. Portugese showed this to be even stronger in Israel, where politics must also be taken into account, and it was interesting to see how attitudes toward making babies that have their roots in a religion and culture become translated into public policy. Not having any previous knowledge of the Halacha, I found her concise and simple explanations very useful.

The Baby Makers, by Diana Frank & Marta Vogel
This book details the modern phenomenon of assisted reproductive technologies (A.R.T.s), available since the late '70s. In our modern world where one can choose not to have children, but also when and how to give birth (and increasingly to a child with specific characteristics), Frank and Vogel explain how this is possible, through to the overarching moral and ethical debates over A.R.T.s.

The book begins with why infertile couples should want to go through the trials of I.V.F to create their own child when they could adopt, and also goes on to explain the years of suffering that such couples endure. Three chapters in the book are devoted to surrogacy, from a historical perspective, the surrogate woman's perspective, and then how surrogacy has become a business in the last few years. The book was written in 1988, well before egg donation had become a vast industry, so the book does not particularly go into detail on the topic.

Although limited in its information because of its publication date, I liked the chapter on ethics and A.R.T.s, particularly the argument that the moral and ethical debates are the domain of the politicians and priests rather than the infertile couples or donors or surrogates. For them, the overriding thought and goal is the creation of a baby.

The book has a variety of writing styles, from the medical or scientific through to the journalistic, but it is, in general, an easy read.

It provided good, solid background information rather than a specific idea for my project — I wish the book could have been updated in the last couple of years -- but the book did illustrate how wide the umbrella topic of A.R.T.s is, and how it encompasses a huge range of stories from the medical through to the cultural, through to the personal story, and it was these broad strokes that I wanted for my portfolio pieces.

Body Bazaar by Lori Andrews and Dorothy Nelkin
Body Bazaar (New York: Crown; 2001) would be of interest to anyone studying not only egg donation, but also of how the human body is a valuable resource, and how this resource is mined in new and ever-resourceful ways in contemporary society.

The book charts the modern "commodification" of humans (making a body into a commodity) for ostensibly scientific research, from the harvesting of Einstein's brain to the case of John Moore, the patient of a rare type of leukemia who later discovered his many visits to the hospital even after he had recovered was because doctors were mining his blood and unique chemicals and patenting it with a pharmaceutical company, its shares worth $3 million.

I found this analysis particularly valuable for my analysis on egg donation: although it provides a medical service, it is also an industry where the emphasis is to make money; and it also has far-reaching effects and ethical considerations for our society.

Lori Andrews is the director of Science, Law and Technology at Chicago-Kent University, and Dorothy Nelkin is professor of law and medicine at NYU. Both are eminent bioethicists, and the book was recommended by a professional science reporter, who often calls both writers when he needs a thoughtful, eloquent "expert" opinion.

So it is with Body Bazaar. For a book that tracks what could be complicated, scientific and jargon-loaded issues and themes, Andrews and Nelkin write in compelling, concise "layman's" prose (without ever having a condescending tone) that stresses the importance of such issues for society in general. It makes sense: putting a price on the human body affects everyone, so why not get the message out to everyone in terms they can understand?

This was what I gained most from, despite the book only touching on egg donation. I admired their style, and it was this clarity of tone and argument that I wished to emulate, particularly on a technical piece I was writing.

As mentioned, the book mentions egg donation without probing it (despite Lori Andrews in particular being outspoken on the topic of the regulation of egg donation) but the other chapters are riveting and chilling enough not to put down the book.

New Ways of Making Babies, Cynthia Cohen (ed)
New Ways of Making Babies: the Case for Egg Donation is an analysis of the contemporary situation of egg donation, broken up into three sections, by bioethicists, lawyers, and doctors. The first part examines what exactly egg donation is, how it has evolved medically, and how a typical practice runs. The second is a discourse between commentators on ethical issues that shroud egg donation, such as whether it is right to pay (compensate?) donors, and if so, how much. The final part gives model regulation and policy for clinics and legislation.

Cynthia Cohen is a professor at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics. I was aware of the book at the beginning of my research because it specifically addressed issues that I wanted to explore, namely egg donation compensation. As it turned out, I ended up interviewing Cohen for a story, together with Ruth Macklin, the author of one of the chapters entitled: "What is wrong with Commodification?" Also, the clinic that the book uses as a model was at Montefiore Hospital; again, another source for a story.

Naturally, I was most interested in the comments by Cohen and Macklin (the latter is at Albert Einstein School of Medicine), but the book would serve as an excellent introduction to not only the practice of egg donation but also to the many ethical implications it has.

There is not one overriding position taken by the book, although Cohen does believe in capped-rate compensation and at least some regulation of the industry. Macklin in particular is rigorous in her case against free payment to donors: "The fact that our society is capitalistic and is dominated by commercial transactions of all sorts does not compel the conclusion that therefore anything whatsoever may be put up for sale. Human body parts should not be subject to the same market forces that govern the sale of pork bellies."

All the authors write clearly, even if their arguments are complex. It is not easy reading, but it does lead the reader into moral debate and nuanced thought that proves to be well worth the trouble.

Conceiving the New World Order, Faye Ginsburg & Rayna Rapp (eds)
Ginsburg and Rapp are both well-known anthropologists at NYU. Conceiving the New World Order is their response to a world where assisted reproductive technologies are being increasingly harnessed to other agendas, such as identity, culture and politics. This was an issue in which I was very interested, writing an article on religious (particularly Jewish) perspectives on egg donation.
The book has two agendas, according to the authors: "To transform traditional anthropological analyses of reproduction and to clarify the importance of making reproduction central to social theory."

The book is academic, and Rapp and Ginsburg preside over a host of international intellectuals who have written essays on topics from all over the world, from population control in modern China, to the politics of lesbian motherhood. There were only a couple of chapters that were particularly relevant to me. I was reporting on egg donation in a specifically American environment, and the only chapter that dealt with egg donation was from a British perspective (where the practice is conducted very differently to here).

Naturally for a book so intellectually rich, there are many issues that are raised, even if some are in a very specialized area of research. It helped in forming my thoughts about egg donation not only as a medical intervention, but also as something that has very real social implications, about which further intellectual debate is needed.