Carl Djerassi is one of "the fathers of the Pill"--he was awarded the National Medal of Science for the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive--and has had a prolific additional career as a writer of fiction, plays, and dialogues about science. In these two plays, "ICSI "and "Taboos," he dramatizes the social transformations and contested viewpoints created by advances in reproductive science and technology.

Carl Djerassi (1923-2015) was the author of many novels, plays, essays, poetry, and short stories published in twenty languages. Renowned as both a writer and a scientist, he was an emeritus professor of chemistry at Stanford University and the recipient of thirty honorary doctorates as well as many international scientific honors. His books published by the University of Wisconsin Press are: How I Beat Coca-Cola and Other Tales of One-Upmanship; Foreplay: Hannah Arendt, the Two Adornos, and Walter Benjamin; Sex in an Age of Technological Reproduction: ? "ICSI" and "Taboos"; and A Diary of Pique 1983-1984 / Ein Tagebuch des Grolls 1983-1984.