A journey through the life of the great fighter for the health of mothers and medical progress. "Wash your hands": this rule of hygiene is taken for granted. That this was not always the case is revealed through the history of the 1818-born Semmelweis, who worked as a gynaecologist in Vienna. He had to fight hard for it to be recognised that doctors’ dirty hands were infecting child-bearing women. His life story, which is of immense importance still today, let’s us look deep into the fascinating world of scientific discoveries and intrigue.

Throughout the world, hi-tech reproduction medicine is paving the way for whole new forms of intervention into human life. Between supply and demand, a global market for dream-child medicine has grown up, its services ranging from in-vitro fertilisation to selecting the child’s sex, from illustrated catalogues of semen and egg-cell donors to the provision of surrogate mothers. Looking at this vast array, Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim asks some urgent, critical questions: are the wishes of parents choosing their ideal child compatible with that child’s needs? Should everything technically possible actually be done? And if not, what are the limits and who should define them?