ACADEMY STATEMENT ON 'TEST TUBE BABIES'
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Physicians Warn that Problem of Sterility Is Complicated --
Expert Treatment Needed.

Disturbed because of a belief that the problems of human sterility had been placed in a false light by recent uninformed discussions of insemination of "test tube babies," the Academy of Medicine ... issued a statement on the matter yesterday....

"The earliest human documents speak of the problems of fertility, the statement read, "and sporadic references to artificial impregnation occur in the medical literature of earlier centuries.  In more modern times, as the function of reproduction was better understood, veterinarians were able to utilize artificial breeding in some animals owing to their seasonal characteristics.  In man this procedure was used chiefly in those rare cases where congenital deformity or injury rendered cohabitation impossible.

"During the past two decades great progress has been made in our understanding of the many factors which may prevent conception.  Refinements of investigation have demonstrated that a barren marriage may be due to one or more causes occurring in either one or both partners, and that the hopes of successful treatment, therefore, depend upon the correction of the abnormal conditions revealed by painstaking diagnosis.

"Obviously the mechanical transference of the seed is rarely a solution to this problem and if injected deeply is not without risk of causing inflammation and permanent sterility in many patients.  Even under expert auspices the technique is not without difficulties and must be repeated month after month to constitute a fair test of its effectiveness."

RABBITS BORN IN GLASS.
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Haldane-Huxley Fantasy Made Real by Harvard Biologists.

It was J. B. S. Haldane [British geneticist and evolutionary biologist, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (1892-1964)] who first drove home to the multitude the beauties of ectogenesis -- a process whereby eggs are fertilized in test tubes.  Aldous Huxley [English-born author Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963)] made much of the possibilities in his "Brave New World [1932]."

"One egg, one embryo, one adult -- normality," explains the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning in that lively satire to a class of students.  "But a bokanovskified egg [Bokanovsky is the fictional biologist who devised the process] will bud, will proliferate, will divide.  From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult.  Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before.  Progress."

At Harvard are two Bokanovskys in the persons of Professor Gregory Pincus [so-called "father" of the contraceptive pill, Gregory Goodwin Pincus (1903-1967)] and E. V. Enzman, who have actually taken a step toward realizing the Haldane-Huxley fantasy.  Not babies but rabbits have been developed in glass bottles.  "We believe that this is the first certain demonstration that mammalian eggs can be fertilized in vitro," [literally, in glass] Pincus and Enzman remark.

Back of these experiments lies a quarter of a century of research.  As long ago as 1901 Dr. Heape [Walter Heape (1855-1929)], an English physiologist, transferred fertilized eggs from one female animal to another and found that they developed normally.  In 1925 Haldane had grown embryonic rats in serum for ten days.  Professor Pincus repeated Heape's experiment successfully in 1930.  Now he has taken the next step and obtain results in glass.

BOTTLES ARE MOTHERS.
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Rearing of Embryos in Glass Is Aided by Hormones.

It was the ingenious and imaginative Oxford biologist, J. B. S. Haldane, who first told us about ectogenesis in his "Daedalus."  That slightly formidable word means the possible production of young animals, including babies, in glass.  Aldous Huxley elaborated the conceit in "Brave New World" and drew a satiric picture of a society ruled by a group of experts, chiefly scientists, who laid down specifications to be followed in producing human beings who were to become chemists, engineers, lawyers, physicians, clerks, plumbers and mechanics and who sprang from eggs about as impersonal as those of a hen.

All this may seem amusing to one who knows little of trends in biological research.  Yet ectogenesis has interested scientists for generations.  The late Professor Jacques Loeb succeeded in developing sea urchins without the aid of any father and thus gave the movement a fine impetus.

Experiments With Rabbits.

When at last babies will be reared in glass vessels by laboratory experts and the history of ectogenesis comes to be written, Professor Gregory Pincus of Harvard is bound to receive his meed [merited reward] of praise.  He made history last year by fertilizing rabbits' eggs in test tubes and restoring them to their mothers so that they might come into the world long-eared, squirming conies.  Recently he tried to take the next step -- let the fertilized egg develop outside the mother in glass and become an embryo.

To ignorant Gradgrinds [a reference to Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, the hard-nosed schoolmaster in Charles Dickens' novel, Hard Times] the latest experiment was a failure.  The eggs started to develop promisingly, but died fifty-six hours after removal from the mother.  Yet it is by such failures, each a little more successful than the last, that ectogenesis will at last become a controlled process.

If it were not for the discovery of hormones, Professor Pincus would probably never have thought of performing his experiment.  Without hormones there can be no growth, no activity.  It is known that growth is affected by the thyroid gland and by the pituitary gland, which lies at the base of the brain.  The pituitary is still much of a mystery, but it manufactures such essentials as oestrin, a female sex hormone, and progestin, which prepares the mother for the development of embryos.  Hence, Dr. Pincus planted his fertilized eggs in a medium consisting in part of thyroid extract and these essential pituitary hormones.  Thus the eggs were to develop at a comfortable, uniform temperature.

Success a Surprise.

Professor Pincus never dreamed that full-fledged rabbits would develop; such a dramatic success could hardly be achieved at a single bound. He expected neither failure nor success.  A good scientist expects nothing; he just watches and draws conclusions.

What Professor Pincus saw were blood vessels beginning to form at the end of forty-eight hours.  The infinitesimal part of the egg that was to become a heart actually showed signs of beating.  He saw the cells split up just as they do normally.  He counted 128.  What should have been a rabbit embryo became an irregular growth, a monstrosity.  It died in fifty-six hours.

To an endocrinologist, the name by which the man who experiments with extracts of the ductless glands is called -- all this is illuminating.  It looks very much as if a mother may be necessary to feed the hormones in some way not yet understood.  That discovery, if right, justifies the experiment.

Ectogenetic babies are further off than ever.  But the work with rabbits (mice, too) is to continue along new lines.  Now Professor Pincus has set himself the task of finding out just what the mother does to supply hormones in the right way.  Then he will try to reproduce the process in culture dishes.

LIFE IS GENERATED IN SCIENTIST'S TUBE
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Dr. Pincus of Harvard Reports to Biologists the first "Semi-Ectogenesis" of Rabbits.
____________

ELEMENTS TRANSPLANTED
_____

Offspring are Born to "Host-Mother" --
Salt Solution or Heat Substituted for Paternity.
________

By WILLIAM L. LAURENCE
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

WASHINGTON, March 26.-- "Bottle babies," predicted by Aldous Huxley for the distant future in a "brave new world" where children will be born in test tubes, have been brought at least part way toward actuality by Dr. Gregory Pincus at the Harvard Biological Institute.

A report of his work, made here today at the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, told of several spectacular developments on the frontiers of the science of life.

Dr. Pincus took the female and the male elements of rabbits, and fertilized them outside the body in a test tube.  This in itself was formerly impossible to do, but Dr. Pincus went an important step further.

Allowing the artificially fertilized ovum to reach a stage of early development in the test tube, Dr. Pincus removed it from the bottle and transplanted it into a living female rabbit.

The transplanted embryo developed and matured in the host-mother just as in nature.  In due course of time normal rabbits were born, the world's first "semi-ectogenetic rabbits."

Extension of the Theory

As rabbits and men belong to the mammalian group, the work is viewed as pointing toward the possibility of human children being brought into the world by a "host-mother" not related by blood to the child.

It is reasoned that eventually women capable of having children whose health does not permit them to do so may "hire" other women to bear their children for them, children actually their own flesh and blood.

To one who desires to speculate at this point the Harvard experiment offers another possibility.  Theoretically, at least, it may become possible for a woman so inclined, particularly in a country influenced by eugenic considerations, to bring into the world twelve children a year by "hiring" twelve "host-mothers" to bear their test-tube-conceived children for them.

Advocates of "race betterment" might urge such procedures for men and women of special aptitudes, physical, mental or spiritual.

"Eliminating" the Male

But the Harvard biologist reported on another advance in the experiments, "eliminating" the male in reproduction.  He put a rabbit ovum in a test tube and fertilized it with a strong salt solution.

Finding that even this salt solution was not necessary, Dr. Pincus accomplished the same results by exposing the ovum for a few minutes to a high temperature of 45 degrees Centigrade, or 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

The ovum, fertilized by a strong salt solution or exposure to high temperature, was then transplanted into a living host-mother rabbit.

The rabbit-embryo developed to the early embryonic stage as in the normal way.  At the end of a week the experiment was stopped to allow the scientists to check on the results.

Further experiments will be carried on in this field with the object of bringing into the world the first mammalian creature having as its "father" a salt solution or a high temperature.

"Fatherless" Offspring Females

Dr. Pincus pointed out in an interview, however, that all rabbits produced from an ovum fertilized artificially by salts or heat would be all female because the process would lack, the sex-determining "Y-chromosome," which is supplied by the male.

Even the early stages of activation of the rabbit ovum, Dr. Pincus reported, could now be brought about experimentally without the male, either by the administration of hormones from the anterior pituitary gland, or by electrical stimulation of the cervical sympathetic nerves....

TEST TUBE BABIES COME STEP NEARER
________

Prof. Pincus Reports Further Progress in the Study of Embryonic Growth
____________

VITAMIN B-1 A FACTOR
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Scientists Also Hear of New Light on Regeneration of Lost Limbs
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By WILLIAM L. LAURENCE
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

WASHINGTON, April 29 -- Further progress in growing embryos of living creatures in test tubes, shedding new light on the chemical processes of embryonic growth an development, and bringing nearer the day of the "brave new world," when children will be brought into the world by chemicals in glass jars, were reported here today before the annual Spring meeting of the National Academy of Sciences by Professor Gregory Pincus of Clark University, Worcester, Mass.

Professor Pincus is the originator of the technique whereby he is able to fertilize rabbit eggs by chemicals.  Such eggs, fertilizing without benefit of the male of the species, have been planted by him into female rabbits, who, in due course, gave birth to animals who had no father but two half-mothers.  One of these rabbits was exhibited at the New York Academy of Medicine about three years ago.

Dr. Pincus made it clear that his experiments were not being conducted for the purpose of making possible "test tube babies."  They are aimed primarily at gaining more intimate knowledge of the physiological processes involved, in the hope that such knowledge will yield means for bringing into the world physically and mentally healthier children.

Until now, Dr. Pincus reported, it has been possible to grow rabbit eggs, fertilized either naturally or by chemicals, for a period no longer than four days in a test tube.

3,000 Rabbit Eggs Used

His studies consisted in adding various chemicals to the nutrient media in the test tubes and watch their effects.  About 3,000 to 4,000 rabbit eggs were employed in the experiments.

Several chemicals, Dr. Pincus reported, are essential for embryonic development during the early stages.  Among these growth-essential substances, he found, are vitamin B-1, or thiamide, pyruvic acid, and the sulfur-containing compounds gluthione, cysteine, and thioglycolic acid.  Insulin was found to be moderately growth-stimulating.

By the use of these chemicals, Dr. Pincus reported, he succeeded in keeping rabbit embryos developing in the test tube for a period of seven days, bringing them through the critical period in the early stages of embryonic development.  The experiments were discontinued at this point to permit more detailed checking.

The energy for the growth of the embryo, Dr. Pincus stated, has been found to be derived from the oxidative degeneration of carbohydrates by enzymes.  That is, sugar and starches are broken down and combined with oxygen with the aid of enzymes, chemical mediators that make possible chemical reactions.

Vitamin B-1 Important

Pyruvic acid, an organic acid present in plants and animals, has been found to be one of the key substances in providing the embryo with energy for growth.  The vitamin B-1 acts as one of the important enzyme systems that make possible the utilization of carbohydrates and pyruvic acid.

The studies, Dr. Pincus stated, may shed light on human sterility.

New light on the mechanism by which amphibia, such as newts and salamanders, are able to regenerate lost limbs, in studies that may lead to the discovery of means for making possible the regeneration of lost organs in higher animals, including man, was reported before the academy by Professor Oscar E. Schotté of Amherst College and Dr. Elmer G. Butler of Princeton University.

The purpose of the present studies was to analyze the changes in the cells which take place in non-regenerating nerveless limbs.  The studies brought to light hitherto unknown facts.  It was found, among other things, that not only does a nerveless limb fail to regenerate, but, in addition, it undergoes remarkable regressive changes, involving often extensive cellular dedifferentiation.

Baby From Frozen Sperm Expected in Three Months
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IOWA CITY, Iowa, Dec. 3 (UP) -- University of Iowa scientists said today that the first child ever conceived by insemination with deep frozen male sperm cells should be delivered in less than three months.

X-rays of the unidentified mother show that the foetal skeleton is developing normally and the child is expected to be normal in every way.

Two other Iowa women are expected to have children conceived by frozen sperm cells but their pregnancies are not as advanced, according to Drs. R. G. Bunge and J. K. Sherman of the Department of Urology at the University of Iowa Medical School here.

Artificial insemination of human beings has been completed successfully in the past but never with frozen semen, according to an officer of the American Medical Association in Chicago.

Frozen cells have been used widely in animal husbandry and sperm cells from prize United States cattle have been flown as far as Argentina for use there.

Human Egg Fertilized In Test Tube by Britons

by ALVIN SHUSTER
Special to The New York Times

LONDON, Feb. 14 -- A team of scientists at Cambridge University reported today in the journal Nature what was described as the first fertilization in a test tube of a human egg with male sperm.

[American workers in the field had reported achieving this more than 10 years ago.  But there is disagreement among scientists on whether complete fertilization took place in these experiments]

"Test tube babies may not be just round the corner," Nature commented, "but the day when all the knowledge necessary to produce them will be available may have been brought a stage nearer by the work of Dr. R. G. Edwards [English physiologist, Robert G. Edwards (1925-  )] and his colleagues."

Dr. Edwards worked with Prof. Barry Bavister at the physiological laboratory at the university and with Dr. Patrick C. Steptoe [English obstetrician, Patrick Christopher Steptoe (1913-1988)] of Oldham General Hospital.

In publishing the results of their experiments today, the three men said they had taken eggs from the follicles of ovaries that had been removed from women for medical reasons.  The follicle is the structure in the ovary that holds the maturing egg cell until ovulation.

The eggs were immersed in fluid from the follicles for maturity to the point of readiness for fertilization.  The eggs were then mixed with the sperm.

Of the 56 eggs examined at intervals, the team reported, seven had been fertilized and 11 penetrated by the sperm cells and probably fertilized.

According to the doctors, the fertilized eggs were destroyed at the time of the microscopic examination.

"This was a deliberate decision," they reported in interviews today, "because they would not have survived much longer."

The report of the experiment, described by Nature as the "first successful fertilization of a human egg in a test tube," touched off a controversy here.  Aids of John Cardinal Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, emphasized that the idea of "test tube" babies violated the teachings of the Roman Catholic church.  They said the church's attitude toward starting human life in this way violated the natural law and was immoral.

Comment From Nature

Expecting controversy as a result of the publication of the report, Nature said the "fact that the techniques might one day be developed to make it possible to produce a fully grown human embryo" outside the body should not be a restraint to progress.

"These are not perverted men in white coats doing nasty experiments on human beings, but reasonable scientists carry out perfectly justifiable research.

"One of the possible benefits of this research could be the treatment of some forms of infertility, probably in older women, who are thought to produce a high proportion of abnormal embryos which fail to develop.

"But because the virtues of work like this seem self-evident to those most immediately involved, they should not fall into the trap of believing that everybody else feels the same."

The reference to treating infertility implies the possibility of taking eggs from a woman by operation, fertiliz[ing] them in a test tube, and replacing them in the womb.  But medical experts agree that any such possibility is a long way off.

Moreover, the "test tube" babies that have been mentioned for so long in science fiction are equally far from reality.  It may be possible to fertilize the egg with male sperm in a test tube, but the problems of supplying a growing fetus in a laboratory with the proper nourishment are extremely formidable.

The report said that the eggs were taken from women at Oldham Hospital and delivered to Cambridge in a special fluid which included fetal calf serum.

After the sperm was added to the eggs, they were examined under a microscope at intervals ranging from 6 hours to 31 hours later.

Work in U.S. Discussed

Dr. Landrum Shettles, a gynecologist at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, said yesterday that experiments he and his colleagues conducted in 1953 successfully achieved fertilization of the human egg in a test tube.

However, Dr. C. K. Chang of the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Shrewsbury, Mass., said that Dr. Shettles' experiments and all others claiming to reprodu[c]e human life outside the living body were "not necessarily authentic."

Dr. Chang's criteria for fertilization, which he has observed in animal experiments, include the observation of a nucleus in the cell and leftover tails of the fertilizing sperm.

'HOST MOTHER' PLAN FORESEEN BY BRITON

BIRMINGHAM, England, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- An embryologist suggested today that "host mothers" might be paid someday to give birth to babies conceived in test tubes from the eggs of women unable to have children.

Dr. Jack Cohen, senior lecturer in embryology at the University of Birmingham, said that an egg from the childless woman could be fertilized by her husband and then inserted into the womb of a "host mother."

Dr. Cohen said that the method had been successful in experiments with animals and that a study in Edinburgh might make the procedure ready for human use in a year.

He said his experiment would provide a fee of $4,800 for any woman who carried a baby for another woman....

Embryos:  A Step Nearer To the Test-Tube Baby

by WALTER SULLIVAN

In 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary and Lord Byron spent part of a wet summer in Switzerland.  To while away the rainy days, Mary wrote a chilling tale about a Swiss scientist who learned how to impart life to a homemade man, formed of parts stolen from mortuaries and dissecting rooms.

The resulting monster, panged because all whom he met were revolted and fled, finally killed his maker (whose name, of course, was Frankenstein) and vanished into an arctic wilderness.  Those seeking to produce human beings in the laboratory have had a bad name ever since.

Producing an Embryo

We know now that no one could ever perform Frankenstein's experiment, but it is possible to produce a human embryo in the laboratory by removing an almost mature egg cell from a woman and bringing it into contact with a drop of male semen.

No babies have as yet been produced in this way, but at least one researcher is talking about doing so.  The embryo, after being cultured and allowed to subdivide "in vitro" -- that is, in a glass vessel, such as a test tube -- would be introduced into the womb of the woman from whom the egg was taken and allowed to reach maturity there.  This technique has already produced living mice and other mammals.

The complete production of a "test tube baby" without any recourse to the sanctuary of the human womb is not yet in sight, although it may come eventually.  However, the prospect of bringing into the world people who were conceived in vitro has electrified the scientific world with excitement -- and a certain foreboding.

The group that appears closest to such an effort, whose immediate goal is to enable certain sterile women to bear children, is led by Dr. Robert G. Edwards at Cambridge University in England.  A visit to his laboratory last week disclosed that embryos fertilized in vitro are now being grown to the multi-celled stage -- well beyond the 16 cells described in a report in the Sept. 26 issue of the British journal Nature.

First, he explained, the embryos now being cultured must be studied microscopically to make sure they are not subject to extensive genetic defects....

Two factors could contribute to such defects.  One is damage to the egg cells during laboratory handling.  The other is the possibility that the egg is defective to begin with.  As women approach their forties, the chances of their producing a [such an egg] rise markedly and a number of those seeking treatment for sterility are in that age bracket.

Backlash Feared

The foreboding of some specialists is rooted in their fear that the first baby conceived in vitro and born to a hopeful mother will grimly call to mind Mary Shelley's nightmarish tale.  Even if the baby was only mildly malformed, the reaction of the public and of legislators called upon to vote funds for medical research could be catastrophic.

There is a certain competitiveness in current egg-culturing efforts and, like Dr. Christiaan Barnard [South African-born heart surgeon, Christiaan Neethling Barnard (1922-2001)], the heart transplant pioneer, the first man to produce a baby in this way can expect instantaneous fame.  Yet, if the resulting child is imperfect, the backlash will be fierce.  In a period when science is already on the defensive, the effect, it is said, could range across all fields of research.

For this reason, and to minimize possible controversy, the National Institutes of Health are said to be unwilling to support any experiments directed toward the implantation in one woman of an egg derived from another woman.  The Cambridge University group says its goal is to implant in a prospective mother only an egg cell taken from her own reproductive system....

Many Questions

A number of laboratories in this country, Britain and elsewhere are culturing human eggs, and it seems inevitable that sooner or later some will be implanted and that babies will result.  The event will raise many questions:

First, will it be considered proper, in vitro, to perform the most intimate, mysterious (and, to some, sacred) of all life processes:  the creation of a new individual?  If the resulting embryo begins to develop abnormally before implantation, will it be legal to destroy it?  The issue, in that case, will be much like that raised by abortion.  Furthermore, who is to bear the responsibility if the resulting child is malformed, despite all precautions?  And might an unscrupulous nation use the technique to mass produce people of a certain type?

Wisdom Required

As with other developments in science, such as the discovery of nuclear energy and the ability to control the human nervous system chemically, this one will impose great demands on our wisdom and self-control.  The development of nuclear and nerve gas weapons does not augur well for the future.

One can conjure up science-fiction visions of drone-like warriors bred by some hostile nations.  But one can also seek comfort in what seems a growing recognition that, while we cannot stifle new knowledge, we can insist that it be used to build a better world.

PROGRESS REPORTED ON TEST-TUBE BABIES
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LONDON, Jan. 7 (AP) -- Test-tube babies moved one step nearer, Nature magazine reported today, when British scientists recently fertilized two human eggs in a laboratory and grew them to a stage where they might live if implanted in a woman's womb.

Eventually, the scientists hope to give motherhood to women who normally are infertile because of defects in their fallopian tubes.

The successful fertilization and growth of human eggs is a project of Patrick Steptoe, a gynecologist, and Dr. R. G. Edwards and Miss J. M. Purdy, physiologists of Cambridge University.

The problems remaining include the actual implanting.  The womb must be made receptive, and how this is done during the normal process of fertilization and the early growth of the fertilized egg in the fallopian tube still is a mystery.

New Era in Reproduction Seen In British Laboratory's Embryo

By WALTER SULLIVAN

The first authenticated birth of a baby whose embryo derived from fertilization and culturing in a laboratory, expected soon in Britain, will open the way for a new era in the control of human reproduction.

According to developers of the technique, it could make possible sex determination of offspring and elimination of congenital diseases that are passed from parents to children of only one sex.  The goal of the current effort, however, is to cope with a common form of infertility.

The techniques involved are also applicable to mass production of farm animals from parents with desirable traits, such as prize cattle, including animals still too young to reproduce normally.  For obvious social reasons, the use of these techniques on human beings is not in sight....

It's a Healthy Girl
Special to The New York Times

LONDON, Wednesday, July 26 -- The first authenticated birth of a baby conceived in laboratory glassware and then placed in the uterus of an otherwise infertile mother occurred last night, apparently without complications.

Reports from Oldham General and District Hospital in Lancashire said the baby, a girl [Louise Joy Brown], was delivered by Caesarian section, appeared normal and weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces.

The birth culminated more than a dozen years of research and experimentation by Dr. Patrick C. Steptoe, a gynecologist, and Dr. Robert G. Edwards, a Cambridge University specialist in reproductive physiology.

Unable to Conceive

The parents are Mrs. Lesley Brown, 31 years old, and her husband, John, 38, a railway truck driver from Bristol.

Mrs. Brown in more than 10 years of marriage had been unable to conceive a child because of a defect in the oviducts, or Fallopian tubes, which each month carry egg cells from the ovaries to the uterus.  It is during this passage that the egg cells are fertilized.

In the procedure that culminated in last night's birth, an egg cell was removed surgically from Mrs. Brown's ovaries last Nov. 10 and fertilized with sperm from her husband in a petri dish.  After two or more days in a laboratory culture, the fertilized embryo was injected into Mrs. Brown's uterus....

Reports from the hospital this morning said that the baby was born just before midnight and that its condition was "excellent."  Mrs. Brown and her husband were reported to be jubilant.

Once the fetus began developing, its own hormonal signals generated all the effects of a normal pregnancy.  Mrs. Brown is reported to have experienced the sort of cravings often reported by pregnant women -- in this case, a yearning for mints.

Letters

On the 'Threat' of Test-Tube Babies

To the Editor:

The development of test-tube babies can be compared to the perfecting of wing transplants so that pigs might fly:  an impressive academic exercise which could lead to useful knowledge, but which in itself can only be called unnecessary.  We could regard it with the detached admiration considered appropriate in every scientific advance (even one whose value is not immediately apparent ) were not its implications so malevolent.

The threat is not of an army of clones or an Orwellian nightmare of laboratory automatons, nor of cold-blooded manipulation (though Louise Brown would be justified in her fury had she been born hideously deformed after all this tinkering).  The threat rather, is of unbridled selfishness, and of an irresponsible scientific community that would cater to it in defiance of social conscience.

The exultation with which Fallopian tube bypass fertilization has been lauded in the headlines seems hollow when juxtaposed with the photographs of children who are starving in a dozen underdeveloped countries.  If some arrangement had been devised so that all these children were adopted, one might be persuaded that some progress had been made.

As it is, all we have is the latest toy for rich women, no less a luxury than plastic surgery on a socialite.  To dignify it as anything else is to indulge in dangerous sentimentality.  Future historians will remark with amazement upon the appalling disparity it reveals between the sophistication of 20th-century technology and the primitivism of its social thought, clinging to an irrational belief in the importance of blood ties (a custom as parochial as any in the most barbarian societies) and able to countenance technological larks when half the world is hungry.

In the wisdom with which we have assimilated the lessons of Copernicus ridiculed and Galileo forced to recant, we find the alternatives to protecting a Dr. Frankenstein more abhorrent than the risks.  We have come to regard the pursuit of technological advancement as an inalienable right.  But in our determination to avoid the Scylla of reactionism or dictatorial definitions of what is good for us, we have been dashed against the Charybdis of a technological free-for-all.  Hence the madness of simultaneously inventing artificial insemination and hygienic abortion; hence the confused scrambling about for a reason why we should go to the moon, why we should perfect life-sustaining respirators for the comatose, why we should make babies in Petrie dishes instead of beds.

The indiscriminate accumulation of discoveries is not the essence of scientific aspiration.  To say that we can make mustard gas is to say nothing.  Amusing patients with test-tube babies when poverty and overpopulation are great tragedies of our time and thousands are in desperate need of health care is like deferring cancer research until we've found a cure for ingrown toenails.  There is a point at which inappropriate activity, however harmless in itself, becomes unconscionable.  Those doctors are painting one house while another burns down.

CAPPY BEINS
New York, July 31, 1978

The Technician as God

To the Editor:

Human life conception in glass, instead of in the womb, has elements of awe and dread.  A barren woman has new hope of rejoicing in her offspring, and her husband in the seed of his loins.

But what of that "Brave New World" syndrome where the laboratory technician can become as God, deciding which conception in vitro shall be womb-implanted and which shall be washed down the drain?  Which shall live?  Which shall be kept from life?

Such scientific success imposes increasing responsibility upon our society to deal with the existential choices thrust upon us by our new knowledge.

Shall we scrap new knowledge for fear of opening Pandora's box?  We cannot.  The box is open.  In this, as with the imminent new successes in genetic engineering, we are compelled (paraphrasing Reinhold Niebuhr [American Protestant theologian (1892-1971)]), to seek provisional ethical solutions for what may be insoluble ethical problems.

STANLEY M. KESSLER
West Hartford, Conn. July 27, 1978
The writer is chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly's Bio-Ethics Committee.

Endangered Women

To the Editor:

I am thankful that the first child born from laboratory fertilization is a girl.  At least now there are two female principals in the drama, instead of one lonely woman surrounded by powerful and prestigious male doctors, male scientists, male legal, ethical and religious experts, male newspapermen, and so on and on.

Men have now the ability to freeze their sperm, fertilize eggs in vitro and deliver the children surgically, and the potential ability for freezing embryos and transplanting them in women other than the egg producers.  Fortunately, a woman's body is still needed to carry the fetus to term.

But women of the future had better get more than a toehold in the bastions of power.  Otherwise, when male-dominated technological reproduction develops artificial wombs, too, women, except for a select few egg producers, may end up totally superfluous.

JUDITH LORBER
Dept. of Sociology, Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, July 16, 1978