Why write a book about the economics of fertility treatment?
In September of 2001 – a bad time to publish a book – I published “Ruling the Waves” about the evolution of the Internet. In it, I argued that every once in a while a radical new technology appears – the telegraph, satellite television, the Internet – where people get all excited, where there are no rules, and which creates new markets. Over time, these technologies become regulated because people want and need rules. As I talked about my book, people asked, “What’s the next technology that will have this?” I became convinced it was reproductive medicine, which started only 30 years ago with the IVF-facilitated birth of Louise Brown. Reproductive technologies allow some people who previously couldn’t have babies to do that. In almost every human society, perhaps 15 percent of the population is infertile, so there’s always been a big demand for babies. Right now, the estimated average cost of producing a baby through these new treatments in the U.S. can be well over $50,000. As I looked
