Progress in Infertility

and diversity from the sociological concepts of equality and inequality. Thus "difference from" does not equal "better than." What remains unclear is whether "difference from" or "better than" equals racism. And one suspects that the primary purpose of the symposium is not strictly to discuss race, but is rather to present a collection of scientific evidence and arguments to combat racism. There is throughout , however, no explicit definition of racism. The absence of definition leads some of the authors to suggest, as solutions for racism, research into the perception of differences, population diversity, behavior-genetics, racial adaptations, and average biological differences among races. Others hold simply that individuals must be treated as individuals, not as examples of a large population. These rather gross differences in the concept of cure suggest that the participants are not agreed on what the disease is. Perhaps the best definition of racism follows from a phrase of Loren Eiseley's, "encroachment on the rights of others." But out of context this phrase has nothing to do with race. An example of racism in which racial differences do exist is obviously White men and Black men attacking one another. Yet the attack by white Nazis on white Slavs and Jews and Gypsies, and the existence of Untouchables in India are examples of racism in which significant biological differences are undetectable. The conclusion from these examples and others presented in the symposium is that the scientific concept of race is divorced from the practice of racism. If the construct "race" is indeed irrelevant to the problem of racism as defined above, then the cure for racism is furthered not with research into population differences, but with a careful enumeration of the "rights of others," followed by the implementation of these rights. Fifty authors have contributed to this volume which offers a comprehensive view of clinical infertility practice and a somewhat less complete coverage of basic reproductive biology. On balance it well fulfills its stated purpose of being written for physicians actively treating infertile couples. The traditional areas of infertility are described in detail and there are, in addition, chapters on immunological aspects of infertility, ovulation induction, habitual abortion and newer diagnostic methods. The treatment of male infertility, often a mystery to gynecologists, is impressively outlined by Dr. Charles W. Charny. He points out a lack of evidence for the efficacy of much of the drug treatment of the …