The Mother Machine
For this book, I interviewed more than 90 research scientists, physicians, patients, ethicists, attorneys, and business executives involved in the new reproductive technologies. The technologies included in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, artificial insemination, sex pre-determination and the artificial womb.
The Mother Machine was published in Japan, Germany and Britain as well as in the United States.
Quotations from my book were integrated with art work in The Holocaust Project by artist Judy Chicago, photographer Donald Woodman and artisans around the country. Opening at the Spertus Museum in Chicago in 1993, The Holocaust Project was a visual exploration of the meaning of the Holocaust for contemporary people.
“This is one of the most important books to come out of the women’s movement now, and into the next century,” Barbara Seaman, author of Free and Female, wrote.
Following publication of The Mother Machine, I was featured in a number of film documentaries, including High Tech Babies on the PBS Nova series; On the Eighth Day: Perfecting Mother Nature, a Canadian film; in Germany, Und Mit Geistesstarke Tu Ich Wunder Auch and Bucherjournal III; and in France with When Men Are Pregnant.
With four other feminists, I founded the Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering (FINRRAGE) and organized the Women’s Emergency Conference on the New Reproductive Technologies held in Vallinge, Sweden in 1985.
I was also co-founder, with Janice Raymond and Jeremy Rifkin, of the National Coalition Against Surrogacy. We held press conferences and testified at numerous hearings in opposition to the legalized sale of women’s bodies for reproductive purposes.
Discussing issues raised in my books, I have appeared on more than 250 television and radio programs—including Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, the Today show on NBC, and the Donahue show.
The Mother Machine: Reproductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artificial Wombs. Published by Harper and Row, New York, l985.
