The Vasectomy Doctor is the fascinating story of the first doctor to provide a vasectomy in Ireland, and his struggle to facilitate his patients' family-planning in the face of the Church's hold on issues of birth control and abortion.

The barrel of a .22 rifle is coming into the room, quickly followed by a short dark man with his right index finger on the trigger. He mutters something incoherent like, "You ruined my life eight years ago, so I am going to take yours now." Then he comes straight at me and holds the muzzle of his rifle two inches away from my lower forehead, straight between my eyes.

Dr. Andrew Rynne is not a man afraid to face conflict. When he was shot by a disgruntled vasectomy client in 1990, he visited the man in prison to talk things over. He parted without animosity from the man who had shot at him six times. In The Vasectomy Doctor, we explore the man behind the surgical mask. We see him touring the North England folk clubs with Christy Moore; in the pub with Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew, scouting for accommodation in hay barns during the Fleadh Cheoils of the 1960s, shooting game in the wilds of Kildare, coming to terms with the end of his marriage, fighting for the right to use contraception in Ireland, defying the "Irish solution to an Irish problem," founding Clane General Hospital, and campaigning for the "right to die." Honest and no-nonsense, this beautifully written memoir from an extraordinary man shows there's more to this vasectomy doctor than just his scalpel!

Dr. Andrew Rynne was born in County Kildare and studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. Following an internship and vasectomy training in Ontario, Canada, he returned to begin general practice in Kildare, where he still works. He writes a weekly opinion column for the Irish Medical News and has appeared frequently on both radio and television.