Mundy, Liza 1960–

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Mundy, Liza 1960–

PERSONAL:

Born 1960; married; children: two. Education: Princeton University, A.B.; University of Virginia, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Arlington, VA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Washington Post Magazine, feature writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Awards for essays, profiles, and science writing from Sunday Magazine Editors Association, Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors, Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards, and Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation; Kaiser Foundation Media fellow, 2003; Media Fellow, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), 2007.

Work included in The Best American Science Writing 2003, edited by Oliver Sacks. Contributor to periodicals, including Slate, Lingua Franca, Redbook, Washington City Paper, and Washington Monthly.

SIDELIGHTS:

In Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World, Liza Mundy explains the science and the societal impact of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other new technologies that are allowing people to overcome physical obstacles to parenthood. Before the late 1970s, infertile couples who wanted children had few options. The birth of the first "test-tube baby" in 1978, however, in the words of New York Times Book Review contributor Polly Morrice, "changed everything." New technologies have allowed many would-be parents—including gay and lesbian couples, men with low sperm counts, and women who either cannot find a partner or have delayed conception past the age of forty—to have children. While this is largely a positive development, Mundy writes, it also carries negative consequences that have been inadequately addressed, in particular the high incidence of multiple births—twins, triplets, or even more—among parents who undergo IVF. Multiples, who are often born prematurely, are at significantly greater risk than singles for adverse health conditions, many of which can be life-long. As Mundy explained in an interview with Lynn Harris on Salon.com, "In some ways, IVF science is driving evolution backward rather than forward. While assisted reproduction may someday lead to a master race of genetically designed humans … in the here and now what it's doing, often, is creating babies who are at a disadvantage, rather than unfairly enhanced."

Mundy covers her topic with admirable "breadth and thoroughness," according to a writer for Publishers Weekly. In addition to biological matters, she considers issues relating to income and social class (for example, the practice of buying donor eggs or surrogate motherhood from lower-income women); examines causes of infertility, including the possible role of pollution in lowering sperm counts; and discusses insurance, religion, and the need for government regulation. Critics welcomed Everything Conceivable as a meticulously researched, engaging, and compassionate book. Though Morrice, in the New York Times Book Review, felt that its focus on parents who want "biological ties" between themselves and their children could be "unsettling" to advocates of adoption, the critic nevertheless praised the book for its lucidity and depth. A writer for the Economist lauded the "insight and sensitivity" that Mundy brings to her subject, and the reviewer for Publishers Weekly, observing that Mundy's subject is one about which all readers should become informed, concluded that "there couldn't be a better starting point than this book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Advocate, April 24, 2007, Charlotte Abbott, review of Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World, p. 59.

Booklist, March 1, 2007, Donna Chavez, review of Everything Conceivable, p. 46.

Economist, July 28, 2007, "Made, Not Begotten; Fertility Treatment," p. 86.

Library Journal, March 15, 2007, Elizabeth Williams, review of Everything Conceivable, p. 87.

New York Times Book Review, April 22, 2007, Polly Morrice, review of Everything Conceivable.

Publishers Weekly, February 19, 2007, review of Everything Conceivable, p. 161; March 5, 2007, "Of Test Tubes and Babies: PW Talks with Liza Mundy," p. 48.

SciTech Book News, September, 2007, review of Everything Conceivable.