cover image The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution

The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution

Wanda Ronner, Margaret S. Marsh, . . Johns Hopkins Univ., $29.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-8018-9001-7

Drawing on John Rock’s (1890–1984) personal papers, Marsh and Ronner (coauthors of Empty Cradle ), trace Rock’s groundbreaking research on human fertility. As an obstetrician and gynecologist in Boston, Rock had become sympathetic to the opposing plights of weary mothers who wanted no more pregnancies and infertile women desperate to conceive. In 1938 he teamed with two other researchers, Miriam Menkin and Arthur Hertig, to understand fertilization and embryo implantation by examining the uteruses of women who underwent hysterectomies. This research led in the late 1950s to the birth control pill. A second research project led in 1944 to the first fertilization of human eggs outside the womb. Although a practicing Catholic, Rock defied both the Church and the state of Massachusetts, home to a harsh anti-abortion law and little tolerance for birth control. His 1963 pro–birth control book, The Time Has Come , challenged the Church, but was praised by many liberal Catholic priests. The authors bring a man and a century to life as they recount two primary discoveries underlying women’s still controversial reproductive rights. 20 b&w photos.(Oct.)