Misconception
by Paul and Shannon Morell, with Angela Hunt, Penguin Books, $35
Misconception charts the harrowing true story of an American couple and the consequences of a tragic mix-up at a fertility clinic which sees their embryos thawed and transferred into another woman. The woman becomes pregnant with the couple's son.
Fortunately,
as the book's cover picture shows, the story has a happy ending. The woman chooses to continue with the pregnancy and the couple end up with their much-wanted baby.
This is a very personal book and makes fascinating reading. It is one-sided in that it is the story of Shannon and Paul and does not go into the trauma which must have been felt by the other woman - who in keeping their baby loses her last chance to become pregnant with a child of her own.
Misconception raises all sorts of ethical questions surrounding IVF and the storage of the embryos which are created. Did you know that in fertility clinics around the world there are thousands and thousands of frozen embryos waiting to be thawed and implanted into their mothers or discarded if they are surplus to their parents' requirements?
It also raises that ever-controversial question - when does a person become a person? At which point does a clump of cells officially become a human being with rights and legal protection?
