Looked at from a particular perspective, the whole of human history and large parts of our cultures are built around the need of fathers to know whose their children are. For the first time, paternity can be established more or less without a shadow of a doubt and Baker argues that this changes everything. He is a sociobiologist who believes that we are in large measure the captives of our instincts, but he sees the technology of birth as changing entirely the context in which those instincts will operate. Parenting no longer stays the prerogative of the young, the heterosexual, the able-bodied or even of the living; there will be more sorts of family and more of a commitment to ensuring that children get the best deal possible--which for Baker, if not for the Catholic church, is not necessarily a standard nuclear couple with 2.4 offspring. He sets up, not always convincingly, a series of little educational tales as a way of examining the prospects that lie ahead of us, and takes us through the social implications of cloning, surrogacy and IVF. This is a coherent account, which is not afraid of belabouring obvious points; Baker's cynical view of human motives is more bracing than depressing. --Roz Kaveney