Heredity and Hope

“Modern healers may claim science to be the foundation of their work, but the key is, in fact, persuasion: to heed advice, to push and persevere, to hope. As the genome is further dissected and better understood, no family of diseases warrants more genuine hope for successful management than genetic conditions. Cowan understands that we must all share that hope for the campaign to be successful.”—Hugh Young Rienhoff Jr., Nature

“Ruth Cowan, an unabashed supporter of genetic screening and prenatal diagnosis, explains how they have enabled parents at risk to have children free of debilitating or deadly genetic diseases. She is a masterful and altogether convincing guide.”—Daniel Kevles, Yale University

“Elegantly written and thoroughly researched, Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s wisdom shines forth on every page of this critically important book.”—Dr. Howard Markel, author of When Germs Travel

“Cowanadeptly and persuasively shows why the normative foundation for contemporary genetic screening is sound, why it should not be tarred with the brush of racist eugenics and where the real challenges and conundrums lie for those involved in screening now and in the future.”—Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania

“Passionate, well-researched, and controversial, Heredity and Hope provides important historical illumination on an issue which activists and analysts from many perspectives will be eager to address.”—Rayna Rapp, author of Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America