For HBS Professor, Babies and Business Intersect

This week's "Spiritual Life" column in the Boston Globe features the work of Debora L. Spar, the Spangler family professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and president-designate of Barnard College...

This week's "Spiritual Life" column in the Boston Globe features the work of Debora L. Spar, the Spangler family professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and president-designate of Barnard College.

In her research, Spar, whose books include The Baby Business, explores the assisted-reproduction industry in the United States, considering both the numbers—$3 billion a year—and the ethical implications. She examines the attitudes of various religious traditions and the wider society toward treatments such as in-vitro fertilization and prenatal genetic testing, how these attitudes have developed over time, and what texts and historical customs have affected them.

Read more about Spar and her work in the Globe story—In Baby Business, What are the Rules?—or in a Harvard Magazine story from 2006.

Most popular

As Union Protests Continue, Stephen Colbert and Yo-Yo Ma Event at Harvard Cut Short

A conversation between the comedian and the celebrated cellist was interrupted by a fire alarm in Sanders Theatre.

Cancellations, Disruptions as Harvard Graduate Student Strike Enters Second Week

Some faculty complain about the protests’ effect on students.

To Promote Healthy Habits in Patients, Start with the Doctors

Why Harvard Medical School is training physicians to think more like coaches

Explore More From Current Issue

Delicate green cocoa pods and small white flowers on a tree branch, surrounded by soft greenery.

Harvard researchers investigate climate’s impact on cocoa crops, innovations in nasal vaccines, and links between pain and skull marrow.

Colorful icons representing sleep, fruit, speech, and a mind with a water lily.

Take this quiz on six healthy habits that Harvard doctors recommend

Bronze statue of a seated figure holding a book, with a campus setting in the background.

As humanities shrink across higher education, one department is flourishing. Is its success a fluke, or a roadmap?