Free Radicals - Michael Brooks [130]
p. 136 Robert Edwards and his wife had made friends with a couple who were childless: R. Edwards, A Matter of Life (Morrow, 1980), p. 38.
p. 136 Human Reproduction published an extraordinary article: M. Johnson et al., ‘Why the Medical Research Council Refused Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe Support for Research on Human Conception in 1971’, Human Reproduction, vol. 25, p. 2157 (2010).
p. 137 Around four million people have been conceived through IVF: C. Russell, ‘Four Million Test-Tube Babies and Counting’, The Atlantic, 7 October 2010, available at http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/four-million-test-tube-babies-and-counting/64198/
p. 138 When Edwards won his Nobel Prize: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2010/press.html
p. 138 ‘In retrospect, it is fortunate that Edwards and Steptoe pressed on’: J. Biggers, ‘Editorial’, Human Reproduction, vol. 25, p. 2156 (2010), available at http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/07/22/humrep.deq156.full.pdf
p. 139 it takes forty days for an embryo to form in the mother’s womb: E.N. Dorff, ‘Catholics, Jews and Petri Dishes’, Forward, 13 October 2010, http://www.forward.com/articles/132119/
p. 139 ‘If the embryo is still unformed …’: The quote comes from Augustine’s On Exodus, 21.80. It is quoted in B. Rowland, Medieval Woman’s Guide to Health: The First English Gynecological Handbook (Kent State University Press, 1981), p. 36.
p. 140 anyone associated with the process of abortion: See http://faculty.cua.edu/Pennington/Law111/CatholicHistory.htm
p. 140 the process had become routinely successful in dogs, horses, foxes and rabbits: R. Foote, ‘The History of Artificial Insemination: Selected Notes and Notables’, Journal of Animal Science, vol. 80, p. 1 (2002), available at www.asas.org/symposia/esupp2/Footehist.pdf
p. 141 there is an ‘inseparable connection …’: Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae is available at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html
p. 141 It has since banned its members from using IVF: Catechism 2377 says: ‘Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable.’ See http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm
p. 141 ‘an infinitely precious human service’: P. Lewis, ‘Catholic Hospitals in Europe Defy Vatican on In-Vitro Fertilization’, New York Times, 18 March 1987, available at http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/18/world/catholic-hospitals-in-europe-defy-vatican-on-in-vitro-fertilization.html
p. 141 no one paid such pronouncements any attention: N.D. Kristof, ‘Australians Cool to Vatican Paper’, New York Times, 19 March 1987, available at http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/19/world/australians-cool-to-vatican-paper.html?src=pm
p. 141 68 per cent of American Catholics approved of artificial contraception: A.L. Greil, ‘The Religious Response to Reproductive Technology’, Christian Century, 4 January 1989, available at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=807
p. 141 Catholics also strongly support IVF: P. Lauritzen, ‘Catholics & IVF: The Next Big Battleground?’, Commonweal, 12 August 2005, available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_14_132/ai_n27859685/
p. 142 ‘no one can be the arbiter of life except God himself’: This quote is actually from Pope John Paul II, who was in turn quoting from Pope Paul VI’s 1968 Humanae Vitae and Pope John XXIII’s 1961 encyclical Mater et Magistra.
p. 142 in his autobiography, A Life Decoded: J. Venter, A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life (Allen Lane, 2007). This is the main source for this section and its quotes.
p. 143 in James Shreeve’s The Genome