Carl Djerassi Dies at 91; Forever Altered Reproductive Practices as a Creator of the Pill
Source: NYT
Carl Djerassi, an eminent chemist who 63 years ago synthesized a hormone that changed the world by creating the key ingredient for the oral contraceptive known as the pill, died at his home in San Francisco on Friday. He was 91.
His son, Dale, said the cause was complications of liver and bone cancer.
Dr. Djerassi arrived in America as World War II engulfed Europe, a 16-year-old Austrian Jewish refugee who, with his mother, lost their last $20 to a swindling New York cabdriver. He wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, asking for assistance, and obtained a college scholarship. It was a little help that made a big difference.
Dr. Djerassi (pronounced jer-AH-see) wrote books, plays and 1,200 scientific articles; taught at universities for five decades; created an artists colony in California; and obtained a patent on the first antihistamine.
His work on the science of birth control helped engender enormous controversies and social changes, altering sexual and reproductive practices, family economics and the working lives of millions of women around the world.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/us/carl-djerassi-dies-at-91-forever-altered-reproductive-practices-as-a-creator-of-the-pill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
shenmue
(38,506 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)riversedge
(70,242 posts)Ilsa
(61,695 posts)Many more women would have died in poverty from not being able to control the size of their families, or in childbirth, or from illegal abortions, if he had not pursued his work.
I hope he rests well. I thank him.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Who knows which of us would have died under the burden of many pregnancies?
Women did, you know, before the pill and before the introduction of hygiene into the labor rooms and hospitals.
Another Austrian brought the hygiene --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
Dr. Djerassi and Semmelweiss -- saviors of women.
CanSocDem
(3,286 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)mountain grammy
(26,623 posts)but I'll always be grateful for the freedom he gave women. Rest in peace.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)'Don't worry, I'm on the pill.'
Yay!
RIP, Mr. Djerassi.
Hekate
(90,714 posts)The series is good, but the books on which it is based are a wonderful capsule social history in many ways.
At the end, the author points out how the order of nuns who were midwives had to abruptly change their calling with the advent of The Pill. They were delivering over a thousand babies a month -- and almost overnight that dropped to almost nothing. Women wholeheartedly and enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to be in control of their own fertility.
The Anglican nuns were not troubled by this. They had taken up midwifery in the first place because women and infants were dying like flies in the filthy conditions prevalent in the old days. They ultimately turned their energies to a new populace in need, AIDS patients who were also dying like flies. What they are doing now I don't know.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Dr. Djerassi. I have exactly two children because of the work he and others did.
IcyPeas
(21,889 posts)The Djerassi Program was founded in 1979 by Stanford University Professor Emeritus Dr. Carl Djerassi, who along with his colleagues at Syntex Corporation, became the first to synthesize a practical oral contraceptive in the early 1950s. In the 1960s, proceeds from the rise of Syntex stock enabled Djerassi to purchase a large tract of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains west of Stanford, which he called SMIP (Syntex-Made-It-Possible) Ranch, renamed Sic manebimus in pace (Thus we'll remain in peace) in 1970 . On this spectacular property with its breath-taking views of the Pacific Ocean and its quiet solitude, Djerassi built a home, as did his children, Pamela and Dale.