Date Published: December 9, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
The Hippocratic Oath dictates, “First, do no harm,” but what if success demands it?
The calm and compassionate Dr. Joyce Porter is proud to work at McArthur Fertility Institute, where miracles happen every day. Couples determined to conceive flock to the clinic, drawn by its unmatched IVF success rate and glowing reputation.
But behind the clinic’s shining facade lies a disturbing secret. When another doctor mentions a peculiarity in the facility’s methods, Joyce investigates. What she discovers is worse than she could have imagined. Now, she must decide whether to confront the institute’s renowned director about his unscrupulous deeds or compromise her ethics by turning a blind eye. She knows staying silent could destroy people’s lives, but speaking out could destroy hers.
As the line between healing and harm blurs, Joyce must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect her patients, her integrity, and the future she still hopes to build.
Interview with M.J. Kuhar, author of In Vitro
What is your favorite part of the book?
I like the last six chapters because by then I was really cheering for my main character. She showed immense courage in confronting her amoral hand-roving boss and was able to do so with the help of her family and friends.
The final chapters were easier for me to write than the beginning and middle of the book. As the story evolved, the characters came to life, and by the time I was writing the final chapters, the dialogue came easily. I enjoyed bringing the events full circle and also leaving a few unanswered questions for the readers to ponder.
Does your book have a lesson? Moral?
Yes. The story revolves around a young physician who has a very demanding job at the McArthur Fertility Clinic. It explores the complicated process of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the technology involved as well as the physical and emotional costs of these treatments. But I think the real power of the story comes from looking at the process from the viewpoints of the people involved, the patients, doctors, and clinical staff—and the emotions at play—anticipation, hope, anger, grief, joy, and love.
As written, my story has a definite moral—but as an author, I want the readers to judge for themselves exactly what it is. The best way to get people to think about complex ethical issues like informed consent, costs of treatment, and commercialization of medicine, is to tell a compelling story and let them decide how they feel about the issues based on their values. I really hope some book clubs read In Vitro and have deep discussions about some of the questions it raises.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
I’m a retired Obstetrician/Gynecologist, and I’ve had the plot of In Vitro in my head for a while. I did a one-year fellowship in Reproductive Medicine and had the opportunity to work in an IVF clinic. During that year, I was struck by the immense sacrifices these couples endured in their quest to have a child. And those stories stayed with me.
Since this is a work of fiction, the characters are also fictional. But as I was imagining them, I remembered people in my life who served as inspiration for various aspects of the different characters. One character draws quite heavily on someone who I worked with and for whom I have immense respect. I asked and received permission from this person to make them part of the story.
My main character, Joyce, is a physician who does tai chi, and I am also a physician (now retired) who practices tai chi. But In Vitro is not a memoir; it is a story I wanted to tell because I have such great respect for couples who walk this journey to become parents, and I’ve seen first-hand how hard the process is on relationships.
Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?
This is a very hard question. My main character, Dr. Joyce Porter, was the most demanding. She is intelligent, ambitious, and fiercely loyal to her patients. She struggles to balance her work life with her personal life, and she worries her long-distance marriage may not survive. Some of my early readers told me she was “too perfect”, and I had to think about how to make her seem real. Through her internal dialogue and external actions, I wanted readers to watch her struggle and grow. And by the end—she figures it out, makes a morally courageous decision, and exhibits the very best traits of a compassionate and caring physician.
I always “liked” Joyce, but I have to admit my favorite character(s) are Evie and Leon Coleman. We meet them in the first chapter of the book, and their story illustrates the emotional, physical, and financial sacrifices couples make when they decide to go the IFV route. They are devoted to each other, and they help the reader think about what it means to be a family.
And I really like my chivalrous Frenchman, Dr. Dominique DuPage. As a visiting professor, he looks at the clinic’s processes from a different perspective, and he provides some romantic tension.
What character in your book are you least likely to get along with?
Owen Hicks is the character you love to hate. And I really didn’t like him. In the first draft, I spent a lot of time showing just how awful he is to everyone he meets—whether it’s his staff, colleagues, or a random person in a hotel lobby. In fact, I had a whole scene devoted to his entitled and arrogant behavior as it related to his seat on an airplane. It was humorous and definitely showed how entitled he was, but it didn’t advance the plot in any way, so I had to take it out.
The good news is that it will make an excellent short story. I’m thinking the title will be something like “Karma is a Bitch.”
What would the main character in your book have to say about you?
Joyce would look at me and see someone who is older and hopefully wiser. She would also not hesitate to tell me that she’s much better at tai chi!
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
In Vitro can certainly stand on its own, and I’ve already started the next book. It is set twenty years after the first book, and features some of the young adults whose parents went to the IVF clinic featured in the first book. I’ve written the first three chapters. Right now, four families’ lives are intertwined through their treatment at McArthur. I’m already invested in these characters, so I’ll have to continue writing to find out what happens! A working title is The Sins of Their Father.
About the Author
Her dedication to helping patients and students left her little time to write, but the idea for a novel stuck with her. Inspired by deeply moving stories of couples undergoing IVF, she developed her first novel, In Vitro.
Now retired, M.J. lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a spicy cat named Simon. She volunteers at a local elementary school, where she reads with kindergarteners to foster a love of books. Tai chi, crafting, and wine tasting are a few of her favorite hobbies.
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