The main objections to “test tube babies” weren’t about the consequences for mothers or babies, they were about doing something “unnatural”: Given the number of babies that have now been conceived through IVF — more than 4 million of them at last count — it’s easy to forget how controversial the procedure was during the time when, medically and culturally, it was new. … They weren’t entirely sure how IVF was different from cloning, or from the “ethereal conception” that was artificial insemination. They balked at the notion of “assembly-line fetuses grown in test tubes.” … For many, IVF smacked of a moral overstep — or at least of a potential one. … James Watson publicly decried the procedure, telling a Congressional committee in 1974 that … “All hell will break loose, politically and morally, all over the world.” (
Today, Ems Seem Unnatural
Today, Ems Seem Unnatural
Today, Ems Seem Unnatural
The main objections to “test tube babies” weren’t about the consequences for mothers or babies, they were about doing something “unnatural”: Given the number of babies that have now been conceived through IVF — more than 4 million of them at last count — it’s easy to forget how controversial the procedure was during the time when, medically and culturally, it was new. … They weren’t entirely sure how IVF was different from cloning, or from the “ethereal conception” that was artificial insemination. They balked at the notion of “assembly-line fetuses grown in test tubes.” … For many, IVF smacked of a moral overstep — or at least of a potential one. … James Watson publicly decried the procedure, telling a Congressional committee in 1974 that … “All hell will break loose, politically and morally, all over the world.” (
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