Deeply Private, Incredibly Public: Readings on the Sociology of Human Reproduction

"The intimacy of the act of conception, the inevitability of the hands of friends and strangers placed on a pregnant woman's belly, the controversy surrounding governmental policies on reproductive rights―all are aspects of contemporary human reproduction.

Deeply Private, Incredibly Public: Readings on the Sociology of Human Reproduction educates readers about cultural attitudes toward reproduction and pregnancy, changes taking place in reproductive medicine and technology, the meaning of reproductive power, and what the impact of reproduction and family might mean for them someday.

The book is organized into three sections. The first addresses reproduction from both medical and cultural perspectives. The readings cover a range of topics, including the medicalization of birth, family planning, and fertility rates and birth statistics around the world as they are affected by economics, revolution, and modernization.

The second section explores autonomy, patriarchy, and reproductive control. Students will read about the impact of social structures on reproduction, factors involved in abortion, the role of men in reproductive freedom, and what reproduction means in societies where women struggle to receive equal treatment.

Section three considers what is actually being created and how this creation occurs. Diverse methods of reproduction and parenting including adoption, surrogacy, genetic engineering, and the harvesting of embryos introduce students to issues that redefine conception, birth, and parenthood.

Sensitive and insightful, Deeply Private, Incredibly Public asks students to think critically about something that is a private, mundane, and everyday occurrence, while also being the root cause of some of the most divisive controversies of the modern age.

Catherine Marrone received both her B.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Stony Brook University in New York and completed two years of post-doctoral work at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Marrone is a professor of sociology at Stony Brook University, where she teaches courses in sociology to undergraduate students and is the director of undergraduate studies. She also serves as a faculty advisor in the multidisciplinary studies major. Her areas of interest include medical sociology, gender, and the sociology of human reproduction. Dr. Marrone was recently named one of the Princeton Review's top 300 college and university professors in the nation."