Word: wombs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...spacious and well-equipped maternity wing at Oldham. There she presumably underwent all the most advanced testing: ultrasonic scanning to check the position, size and bodily shape of the fetus as it developed; monitoring of hormone levels and fetal heart beat; and perhaps withdrawal of amniotic fluid from the womb to determine whether the child had Down's syndrome (mongolism), the congenital malformation called spina bifida or any number of other genetic defects. Had the doctors detected any serious problems, Lesley Brown could have quickly received an abortion. Observed Dr. Stuart J. Steele of London's Middlesex Hospital Medical School...
People want to know, and have a right to be curious about such things." Indeed, long before anyone heard of Huxley or even Mary Shelley's Frankenstein monster, people were fascinated and frightened by the prospects of creating life outside the womb...
...repercussions. In the words of Nobel Laureate James Watson, there is the potential for "all sorts of bad scenarios." What, for instance, could prevent a scientist from taking a fertilized egg from one woman, who perhaps did not want to carry her own baby, and implanting it in the womb of a surrogate. Who then would be the child's legal mother? Or, in the words of an old joke, "Which one gets the Mother's Day card...
...action was brought by a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., dentist, Dr. John Del Zio, 59, and his wife Doris, 34. Despite several operations, Mrs. Del Zio had apparently been unable to become pregnant because of tubal problems. In 1972, she agreed to let Dr. Landrum Shettles place in her womb an egg said to have been fertilized externally by her husband's sperm. But upon learning of the experiment in his department, Vande Wiele destroyed the specimen, contending that the procedure was risky, that Shettles lacked the skills to undertake it and that it had not been approved by the hospital...
Finally, in 1969, Steptoe and Edwards announced that they had done the same thing with human eggs. The report caused a worldwide sensation and drew considerable fire, particularly from conservative churchmen. Trying to allay fears that he was actually attempting to create babies outside the womb, Steptoe insisted that his true goal was quite different. Said he: "All that I am interested in is how to help women who are denied a baby because their tubes are incapable of doing their small part...