The Vasectomy Doctor

In 1990, Dr Andrew Rynne was shot by a man on whom he had carried out a vasectomy eight years previously. The Vasectomy Doctor begins with a description of that terrifying attempt on his life and ends with an explanation of why it might have happened. The book takes the reader through a life begun on a farm in County Kildare, through Rynne's early education and medical training where he augmented his school fees by playing tin-whistle and singing traditional music (later touring with Christy Moore) and through his professional career where he was a tireless agitator for the liberalisation of birth control. Against all odds and in the face of opposition from both peers and clergy he tells of being the first doctor in Ireland to carry out a vasectomy (over the past 30 years he has carried out some 25,000 such operations) and highlights the challenges and joys he has experienced along the way.