This book provides a non-technical overview of the role that sex hormones play in aging. The title led me to think that the book would address the entire field of aging; however, it mostly focuses on the relation of sex hormones to aging. The first five chapters actually do summarize the general subject of the science of aging, but the information contained in these chapters is covered in more detail in other books (see Steven Austad's 1997 book, for instance). However, starting with chapter 6, Gosden hones his focus more specifically on the sex hormones and how they affect aging. He presents the story of the discovery of the sex hormones, starting with investigations by Brown-Séquard in 1889. In the remaining chapters, Gosden interweaves the history of sex hormones with recent discoveries about how they affect aging. The book is written for general audiences, so there are no in-text citations, although Gosden provides a chapter-by-chapter list of suggested readings at the end.

I learned a great deal from this book on the state of reproductive science. However, I was chilled by the author's total lack of concern with the moral and ethical dimensions of tampering with our genes. He seems concerned only with the question of whether a procedure is safe and will benefit the child and its parents. Perhaps as a scientist he does not consider this within his purview, but it is the moral/religious debate which is causing the most angst in our society on issues surrounding the questions of "designer babies" and the termination of pregnancies.

One of your customer reviewers expressed disappointment that the author had spent too much time on the ethics and not enough on procedures. I wondered whether we had read the same book! Yes, he could have written a more specific "how to" book, but any ethical discussion is pretty one-sided; there is more to the other side than fear of the unknown, which seems to be the only negative concern the author seems to recognize.

I hoped to find this book to be informative and factual, and if you searched long and hard you could find that in a few places. But all in all I was pretty disappointed because I was looking for something that was more a description of actual procedures and technology. If that is not what you are looking for, and you are looking for a lot of moral and ethical background, it was generally written clearly and easy to follw.

In Designing Babies: The Brave New World Of Reproductive Technology, reproductive expert Roger Gosden provides the non-specialist general reader with a compelling and comprehensive overview of what is happening in the biological science of assisted reproduction. Written in clear, non-technical language, Designing Babies explains this rapidly emerging science and the several social and ethical dilemmas involved. The reader is given an accessible understanding of the near future medical goals of gene screening, prenatal genetic repair, cloning, and prenatal sex selection. Designing Babies is a very highly, "reader friendly" addition to school and community library biological science collections.