Answer to question 2

As futuristic and surreal as The Handmaid's Tale may seem, parts of it do parallel real life. In The Journal of Medical Ethics, scientists pose a question to a group of women: "Would you rather be a 'birth' or a 'genetic' mother?" This question mirrors one of the central themes in Handmaid's Tale. It is most noticeable when a Commander's Wife attempts to play a part in her Handmaid's birth, as is customary, in Chapter 21 on page 125.
An article in US News and World Report features another similarity between the book and the real world. A fundamentalist Mormon extremest, Warren Steed Jeffs, used his faith to justify his criminal actions. Under his leadership, young girls were used in ways not completely unlike the way Handmaids were treated in Atwood's story.