Several friends have advised me to tone down my book’s trenchant defense of assisted reproductive technology.  Patri Friedman‘s just given me another reason to stand my ground:

We are delighted to announce the birth of Iselle Rose
Friedman early this morning, August 30th, 2010. She is a healthy baby
girl, weighing 5 pounds, 13 ounces (2.635 kilos), born by C-section at Sai Kiran Hospital in Hyderabad, India, after 38 weeks gestation.

If you’re asking yourself “Hyderabad?,” the natural explanation is that Iselle is the fruit of fertility tourism: An Indian surrogate carried the Friedman fetus to term.  A baby enjoys the gift of life, her family is thrilled to have her, a surrogate earns vastly more than typical Indian wages, and the world gets another Friedman.  We truly live in an age of miracles.