Eugenesia

La eugenesia es la auto-direccin de la evolucin humana: Lema del Segundo Congreso Internacional de Eugenesia, 1921, representado como un rbol que unifica una diversidad de campos diferentes. La eugenesia es una filosofa social que defiende la mejora de los rasgos hereditarios humanos mediante varias formas de intervencin.1 Las metas perseguidas han variado entre la creacin de personas ms sanas e inteligentes, el ahorro de los recursos de la sociedad y el alivio del sufrimiento humano. Los medios antiguamente propuestos para alcanzar estos objetivos se centraban en la seleccin artificial, mientras los modernos se centran en el diagnstico prenatal y la exploracin fetal, la orientacin gentica, el control de natalidad, la fecundacin in vitro y la ingeniera gentica. Sus oponentes arguyen que la eugenesia es inmoral y est fundamentada en, o es en s misma, una pseudociencia. Histricamente, la eugenesia ha sido usada como justificacin para las discriminaciones coercitivas y las violaciones de los derechos humanos promovidas por el estado, como la esterilizacin forzosa de personas con defectos genticos, el asesinato institucional y, en algunos casos, el genocidio de razas consideradas inferiores. La seleccin artificial de seres humanos fue sugerida desde muy antiguo, al menos desde Platn, pero su versin moderna fue formulada por vez primera por Sir Francis Galton en 1865, recurriendo al reciente trabajo de su primo Charles Darwin. Desde sus inicios, la eugenesia (trmino derivado del griego bien nacido o buena reproduccin) fue apoyada por destacados pensadores, incluyendo a Alexander Graham Bell, George Bernard Shaw y Winston Churchill. La eugenesia fue una disciplina acadmica en muchos institutos y universidades. Su reputacin cientfica se vino abajo en los aos 1930, poca en la que Ernst Rdin empez a incorporar la retrica eugensica a las polticas raciales de la Alemania nazi. Durante el periodo de posguerra, gran parte tanto del pblico como de la comunidad cientfica asociaba la eugenesia con los abusos nazis, que incluyeron la higiene racial y la exterminacin, si bien varios gobiernos regionales y nacionales mantuvieron programas eugensicos hasta los aos 1970.

Significados de la eugenesia
La eugenesia, desde su mismo principio, signific muchas cosas diferentes para muchas personas diferentes. Histricamente, el trmino ha sido usado para cubrir cualquier cosa comprendida entre el cuidado prenatal de las madres hasta la esterilizacin forzada y la eutanasia. En el pasado tuvieron lugar muchos debates, algunos de los cuales continan en la actualidad, sobre qu se considera exactamente parte de la eugenesia.2

El trmino eugenesia se usa a menudo para referirse a los movimientos y polticas sociales que tuvieron influencia a principios del siglo XX. En un amplio sentido histrico, la eugenesia tambin puede ser el estudio de la mejora de las cualidades genticas humanas. Algunas veces se aplica para describir en trminos generales cualquier accin humana cuya finalidad sea mejorar el acervo gentico. Algunas formas de infanticidio en las sociedades antiguas, la actual reprogentica, los abortos preventivos y los bebs de diseo han sido llamados (a veces de forma controvertida) eugenesia. Debido a sus finalidades normativas y a su relacin histrica con el racismo cientfico, as como al desarrollo de la ciencia de la gentica, la comunidad cientfica internacional se ha desvinculado casi totalmente del trmino eugenesia, calificndola a veces de pseudociencia, si bien pueden encontrarse defensores de lo que se conoce como eugenesia liberal. Las investigaciones modernas sobre los potenciales usos de la ingeniera gentica ha llevado a una cada vez mayor invocacin de la historia de la eugenesia en discusiones sobre biotica, la mayora de las veces de forma cautelar. Algunos bioticos sugieren que incluso los programas de eugenesia no coactiva seran inherentemente poco ticos, si bien este punto de vista ha sido cuestionado por pensadores tales como Nicholas Agar.3 Los eugenesistas defienden polticas especficas que (de tener xito) llevaran a una mejora observable del acervo gentico humano. Puesto que el definir qu mejoras son deseables o beneficiosas es percibido como una eleccin cultural ms que un asunto que pueda determinarse objetivamente (es decir, por investigaciones empricas y cientficas), la eugenesia ha sido considerada a menudo una pseudociencia. El aspecto ms discutido de la eugenesia ha sido la definicin de mejora del acervo gentico humano, como qu es una caracterstica beneficiosa y qu es un defecto. Este aspecto de la eugenesia ha sido histricamente contaminado con racismo cientfico. Los primeros eugenesistas estaban ms preocupados con los factores observables de la inteligencia que a menudo se correlacionan fuertemente con la clase social. Muchos eugenesistas se inspiraron en la cra selectiva de animales (donde se suele trabajar para lograr pura razas) como analoga para la mejora de la sociedad humana. La mezcla de razas (o miscegenacin) sola ser considerada como algo a evitar en nombre de la pureza racial. En aquella poca este concepto pareca tener cierto respaldo cientfico, y sigui siendo un asunto beligerante hasta que el desarrollo avanzado de la gentica llev al consenso cientfico de que la divisin de especies humanas en razas desiguales es injustificable. Algunos ven esto como un consenso ideolgico, dado que la igualdad, lo mismo que la desigualdad, es una eleccin cultural ms que un asunto que pueda ser determinado objetivamente. La eugenesia tambin se ha preocupado por la eliminacin de enfermedades hereditarias tales como la hemofilia y la enfermedad de Huntington. Sin embargo, hay varios problemas en calificar ciertos factores como defectos genticos:

En muchos casos no hay consenso cientfico sobre lo que es un defecto gentico. A menudo se argumenta que es ms un asunto de eleccin social o individual. Lo que parece ser un defecto gentico en un contexto o entorno puede no serlo en otro. Este puede ser el caso de los genes con una ventaja heterocigota, como la anemia falciforme y la enfermedad de Tay-Sachs, que en su forma heterocigota pueden ofrecer una ventaja contra, respectivamente, la malaria y la tuberculosis. Muchas personas minusvlidas o invlidas pueden tener xito en la vida.

Muchas de las enfermedades que los primeros eugenesistas identificaron como hereditarias (por ejemplo la pelagra) se consideran actualmente imputables completa o al menos parcialmente a las condiciones medioambientales.

Parecidas preocupaciones han surgido cuando el diagnstico prenatal de una enfermedad congnita lleva al aborto (vase tambin diagnstico gentico preimplantacional). Las polticas eugensicas han sido clasificadas conceptualmente en dos categoras: eugenesia positiva, que fomenta la mayor reproduccin de los designados ms aptos, y la eugenesia negativa, que desaconseja o impide la reproduccin de los designados menos aptos. La eugenesia negativa no necesita ser coactiva: un estado podra ofrecer recompensas econmicas a ciertas personas que se sometan a la esterilizacin, si bien algunos crticos podran responder que este incentivo, junto con la presin social, podra percibirse como coaccin. La eugenesia positiva tambin puede ser coactiva: el aborto en mujeres aptas era ilegal en la Alemania nazi. Durante el siglo XX, muchos pases promulgaron polticas y programas eugensicos, incluyendo:

Promocin de tasas de natalidad diferenciales Esterilizacin obligatoria Abortos forzosos Restriccin del matrimonio Exploracin gentica Control de natalidad Control de la inmigracin Segregacin (tanto racial como de los enfermos mentales) Genocidio

La mayora de estas polticas fueron posteriormente consideradas coactivas, restrictivas o genocidas, y actualmente son pocas las jurisdicciones que incluyen polticas explcitamente clasificadas de eugensicas o inequvocamente eugensicas en esencia. Sin embargo, algunas organizaciones privadas ayudan a la gente con servicios de orientacin gentica, y la reprogentica puede ser considerada una forma de eugenesia liberal no patrocinada por el estado.

Historia
[editar] Teora de Galton
La seleccin artificial de seres humanos fue sugerida desde muy antiguo, al menos desde Platn, quien crea que la reproduccin humana deba ser controlada por el gobierno. Platn registr estos puntos de vista en La Repblica: que los mejores cohabiten con las mejores tantas veces como sea posible y los peores con las peores al contrario. Platn propona que el proceso se ocultase al pblico mediante una especie de lotera. Otros ejemplos antiguos incluyen la supuesta prctica de las polis de Esparta de abandonar a los bebs dbiles fuera de los lmites de la ciudad para que murieran. Sin embargo, dejaban a todos los bebs fuera durante un periodo de tiempo, considerndose ms fuertes a los supervivientes, mientras muchos bebs supuestamente ms dbiles fallecan.

Francis Galton, uno de los padres de la eugenesia Durante los aos 1860 y 1870, Sir Francis Galton sistematiz estas ideas y costumbres de acuerdo al nuevo conocimiento sobre la evolucin del hombre y los animales provisto por la teora de su primo Charles Darwin. Tras leer El origen de las especies de ste, Galton observ una interpretacin de la obra de Darwin a travs de la cual los mecanismos de la seleccin natural eran potencialmente frustrados por la civilizacin humana. Galton razon que, dado que muchas sociedades humanas buscaban proteger a los desfavorecidos y los dbiles, dichas sociedades estaban reidas con la seleccin natural responsable de la extincin de los ms dbiles. Slo cambiando estas polticas sociales, pens Galton, podra la sociedad ser salvada de una reversin hacia la mediocridad, un frase que acu primero en estadstica y que ms tarde cambio a la hoy frecuente regresin hacia la media.4 Galton esboz por vez primera su teora en el artculo de 1865 Talento y personalidad hereditarios (Hereditary Talent and Character), explicndola luego ms detalladamente en su libro de 1869 El genio hereditario.5 Galton comenz estudiando la forma en la que los rasgos humanos intelectuales, morales y de personalidad tendan a presentarse en las familias. Su argumento bsico era que el genio y el talento eran rasgos hereditarios en los humanos (aunque ni l ni Darwin tenan an un modelo de trabajo para este tipo de herencia). Galton concluy que, puesto que puede usarse la seleccin artificial para exagerar rasgos en otros animales, podan esperarse resultados similares al aplicar estas prcticas en humanos. Como escribi en la introduccin de El genio hereditario: Me propongo mostrar en este libro que las habilidades naturales del hombre se derivan de la herencia, bajo exactamente las mismas limitaciones en que lo son las caractersticas fsicas de todo el mundo orgnico. Consecuentemente, como es fcil a pesar de estas limitaciones lograr mediante la cuidadosa seleccin una raza permanente de perros o caballos dotada de especiales facultades para correr o hacer cualquier otra cosa, de la misma forma sera bastante factible producir una raza de hombres altamente dotada mediante matrimonios sensatos durante varias generaciones consecutivas. Galton, El genio hereditario, 1

Segn Galton, la sociedad ya fomentaba las enfermedades disgenticas, afirmando que los menos inteligentes se reproducan ms que los ms inteligentes. Galton no propuso sistema de seleccin alguno, sino que esperaba que se hallara una solucin cambiando las buenas costumbres sociales de forma que animasen a la gente a ver la importancia de la reproduccin. Galton us por primera vez la palabra eugenesia en su libro de 1883 Investigaciones sobre las facultades humanas y su desarrollo (Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development), en el que quiso mencionar los diversos tpicos ms o menos relacionados con el cultivo de la raza o, como podramos llamarlo, con las cuestiones eugensicas. Incluy una nota a pie para la palabra que rezaba: Esto es, con cuestiones relacionadas con lo que se denomina en griego eugenia, a saber, de buen linaje, dotado hereditariamente de cualidades nobles. Esta y las palabras relacionadas (eugnico, etctera) son igualmente aplicables a hombres, bestias y plantas. Deseamos enormemente una palabra breve para aludir a la ciencia de la mejora del linaje, que en modo alguno se limita a las cuestiones de emparejamientos sensatos, sino que, especialmente en el caso del hombre, toma conciencia de todas las influencias que tienden a dar aunque sea en remoto grado a las razas o variedades ms aptas una mejor oportunidad de prevalecer ms rpidamente sobre los menos aptos de lo que de otra forma habra hecho. La palabra eugenesia expresara suficientemente esta idea, siendo como mnimo una palabra ms efectiva que viricultura, que una vez me aventur a usar. Francis Galton, Inquiries into human faculty and its development (Londres, Macmillan, 1883), pg. 17, nota 1 En 1904 Galton aclar su definicin de eugenesia como la ciencia que trata sobre todas las influencias que mejoran las cualidades innatas de una raza, y tambin con aquellas que las desarrollan hasta la mayor ventaja.6 La formulacin de Galton de la eugenesia estaba basada en un fuerte enfoque estadstico, fuertemente influenciado por la fsica social de Adolphe Quetelet. Sin embargo, a diferencia de ste Galton no exaltaba al hombre medio sino que lo despreciaba por mediocre. Galton y su heredero estadstico Karl Pearson desarrollaron lo que se llam el enfoque biomtrico de la eugenesia, que desarroll nuevos y complejos modelos estadsticos (ms tarde exportados a campos completamente diferentes) para describir la herencia de los rasgos. Sin embargo, con el redescubrimiento de las leyes de la herencia de Gregor Mendel, surgieron dos bandos separados de defensores de la eugenesia. Uno estaba formado por estadsticos y otro por bilogos. Los primeros crean que los segundos tenan modelos matemticos excepcionalmente primitivos, mientras los bilogos crean que los estadsticos saban poco sobre biologa.7 La eugenesia termin aludiendo a la reproduccin humana selectiva como intento de obtener nios con rasgos deseables, generalmente mediante el enfoque de influir sobre las tasas de natalidad diferenciales. Estas polticas se clasificaban en su mayora en dos categoras: eugenesia positiva, la mayor reproduccin de los que se consideraba que contaban con rasgos hereditarios ventajosos, y la eugenesia negativa, la disuasin de la reproduccin de los que tenan rasgos hereditarios considerados malos. En el pasado, las polticas eugensicas negativas han ido de intentos de segregacin a esterilizaciones e incluso genocidio. Las polticas eugensicas positivas han tomado tpicamente la forma de premios o bonificaciones para los padres aptos que tenan otro hijo. Prcticas relativamente inocuas como la orientacin matrimonial tenan vnculos primitivos con la ideologa eugensica.

La eugenesia era diferente de lo que ms tarde se conocera como darwinismo social. Aunque ambos sostenan que la inteligencia era hereditaria, la eugenesia afirmaba que eran necesarias nuevas polticas para cambiar activamente el statu quo hacia un estado ms eugensico, mientras los darwinistas argumentaban que la propia sociedad advertira naturalmente el problema de la disgenesia si no se ponan en prctica polticas de bienestar social (por ejemplo, los pobres podran reproducirse ms pero tendran tasas de mortalidad ms elevada).

Eugenesia en Latinoamrica
Las polticas estatales de algunos pases latinoamericanos defendieron el predominio social blanco incrementando la inmigracin europea y erradicando las poblaciones indgenas. Esto puede ser particularmente obvio en Argentina, Brasil y Chile, pases en los que este proceso se conoce como blanqueamiento y branqueamento, respectivamente.[cita requerida]

[editar] La eugenesia y el Estado (1890-1945)

Uno de los primeros defensores modernos de las ideas eugensicas (antes de que fueran clasificadas como tales) fue Alexander Graham Bell. En 1881 Bell investig la tasa de sordera en Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. De esto concluy que la sordera era de naturaleza hereditaria y recomend la prohibicin del matrimonio con sordos (Memoria sobre la formacin de un tipo de sordera en la raza humana) incluso a pesar de que l mismo estaba casado con una sorda. Como muchos otros de los primitivos eugenesistas, propuso controlar la inmigracin con fines eugensicos y advirti que los colegios internos para sordos podran considerarse posiblemente como lugares de cra de una raza humana sorda. Aunque la eugenesia es hoy relacionada a menudo con el racismo, no siempre fue as: tanto W.E.B. DuBois como Marcus Garvey apoyaron la eugenesia o ideas similares como forma de reducir el sufrimiento de los afroamericanos y mejorar su estatura. Muchos mtodos legales de eugenesia incluyeron leyes estatales contra la miscegenacin o la prohibicin de los matrimonios interraciales. La Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos derog estas leyes estatales en 1967 y declar inconstitucionales las leyes antimiscegenacin. La Alemania nazi de Adolf Hitler fue famosa por los programas eugensicos que intentaban mantener una raza alemana pura mediante una serie de medidas recogidas bajo la llamada higiene racial. Entre otras actividades, los nazis realizaron extensivos experimentos en seres humanos vivos para comprobar sus teoras genticas, yendo desde la simple medida de las caractersticas fsicas a los horrendos experimentos efectuados por Josef Mengele y Otmar von Verschuer con gemelos en los campos de concentracin. Durante los aos 1930 y 1940, el rgimen nazi esteriliz forzosamente a cientos de miles de personas a los que consideraba mental y fsicamente no aptos (se estima que unas 400.000 entre 1934 y 1937). La escala del programa nazi provoc que los defensores estadounidenses de la eugenesia buscasen una ampliacin del suyo, con alguna queja sobre que los alemanes nos estn ganando en nuestro propio juego.8 Los nazis fueron incluso ms all, matando decenas de miles de invlidos oficiales mediante programas obligatorios de eutanasia.9 Tambin implantaron varias polticas eugensicas positivas, otorgando premios a las mujeres arias que tenan un gran nmero de hijos y promoviendo un servicio en el que mujeres solteras racialmente puras eran fecundadas por oficiales de las SS (Lebensborn). Muchas de sus preocupaciones sobre la eugenesia y la higiene racial estuvieron tambin presentes en su exterminio sistemtico de millones de personas

indeseables, incluyendo judos, gitanos, testigos de Jehov y homosexuales durante el Holocausto (buena parte del equipo y los mtodos de exterminio usados en los campos fueron desarrollados inicialmente en un programa de eutanasia). El alcance y la coaccin de los programas eugensicos alemanes, junto con el fuerte uso de la retrica eugensica y la llamada ciencia racial durante todo el rgimen, crearon una indeleble asociacin cultural entre la eugenesia y el Tercer Reich en los aos de posguerra.10 El segundo mayor movimiento eugensico se dio en los Estados Unidos. Comenzando con Connecticut en 1896, muchos estados aprobaron leyes sobre el matrimonio con criterios eugensicos, prohibiendo casarse a cualquiera que fuese epilptico, imbcil o dbil mental. En 1898 Charles B. Davenport, un prominente bilogo estadounidense, comenz como director de una estacin de investigacin biolgica situada en Cold Spring Harbor unos experimentos sobre la evolucin de plantas y animales. En 1904, Davenport recibi fondos del Instituto Carnegie para fundar la Estacin de Evolucin Experimental. La Eugenics Record Office (Oficina de Registro de Eugenesia) abri en 1910 mientras Davenport y Harry H. Laughlin empezaban a promocionar la eugenesia.11

Diagrama de un rbol genealgico de La familia Kallikak destinado a ilustrar cmo desliz ilcito poda provocar una generacin completa de imbciles. Durante el siglo XX, los investigadores se vieron intrigados por la idea de que las enfermedades mentales podan transmitirse dentro de las familias y llevaron a cabo varios estudios para documentar la heredabilidad de enfermedades tales como la esquizofrenia, el trastorno bipolar y la depresin. Desafortunadamente estos intereses terminaron asociados con el movimiento eugenesista. A finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX se promulgaron leyes estatales para prohibir el matrimonio y forzar la esterilizacin de los enfermos mentales con el fin de evitar la transmisin de las enfermedades mentales a la siguiente generacin. Estas leyes fueron ratificadas por la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos en 1927 y no fueron abolidas hasta mediados de siglo. Para 1945 unos 45.000 enfermos mentales haban sido esterilizados forzosamente. En los aos siguientes, la Eugenics Record Office reuni una enorme coleccin de rboles genealgicos y concluy que quienes eran no aptos procedan de entornos econmica y socialmente pobres. Eugenesistas

tales como Davenport, el psiclogo Henry H. Goddard y el conservacionista Madison Grant (todos muy respetados en su poca) empezaron a presionar para lograr diversas soluciones polticas al problemas de los no aptos. (Davenport abogaba por la restriccin de la inmigracin y la esterilizacin como mtodos principales, Goddard recomendaba la segregacin en su libro La familia Kallikak, y Grant era partidario de todo lo anterior y ms, abrigando incluso la idea del exterminio).12 Aunque su metodologa y mtodos de investigacin se consideran actualmente muy defectuosos, en la poca se consider una investigacin cientfica legtima. Tuvo sin embargo detractores cientficos (notablemente Thomas Hunt Morgan, uno de los pocos mendelistas en criticar explcitamente la eugenesia), si bien la mayora de ellos se centraron ms en la primitiva metodologa de los eugenesistas y en la consideracin de casi cualquier caracterstica humana como hereditaria, que en la idea de la eugenesia en s.13 La idea del genio y el talento fue tambin considerada por William Graham Sumner, un fundador de la American Sociological Society (actual American Sociological Association), quien mantena que si el gobierno no interfera en la poltica social de laissez faire, surgira una clase de genios en la cima del sistema de estratificacin social, seguida de una clase de talentos. La mayor parte del resto de la sociedad caera en la clase de los mediocres. Aquellos que eran considerados anormales (retrasados mentales, minusvlidos, etctera) tenan un efecto negativo sobre el proceso social al consumir recursos necesarios. Deberan ser dejados solos para que se valiesen por s mismo. Pero los de la clase de delincuentes (criminales, pervertidos, etctera) deberan ser eliminados de la sociedad.14

Demostracin de antropometra en una exhibicin de una conferencia sobre eugenesia de 1921. Con la aprobacin de la ley de inmigracin Johnson-Reed, los eugenesistas jugaron por vez primera un papel protagonista en el debate del Congreso como expertos asesores sobre la amenaza de linajes inferiores procedentes del este y el sur de Europa. Esto redujo el nmero de inmigrantes del extranjero al 15% de aos anteriores, al controlar el nmero de individuos no aptos que entraban al pas. La nueva ley reforz las anteriores que prohiban la mezcla racial en un intento por conservar el acervo gentico.15 Las consideraciones eugensicas tambin estuvieron tras la aprobacin de leyes sobre el incesto en buena parte de los Estados Unidos y fueron usadas para justificar muchas leyes antimiscegenacin.16

Algunos estados esterilizaron a los imbciles durante buena parte del siglo XX. La Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos sentenci en el caso Buck contra Bell de 1927 que el estado de Virginia poda esterilizar a los considerados no aptos. La poca ms importante de esterilizacin eugensica fue entre 1927 y 1963, cuando unas 64.000 personas fueron esterilizadas forzosamente bajo las leyes eugensicas de los Estados Unidos.17 Un informe favorable sobre los resultados de la esterilizacin en California, con mucho el estado que ms esterilizaciones realiz, fue publicado con formato de libro por el bilogo Paul Popenoe y sera ampliamente citado por el gobierno nazi como evidencia de que los programas masivos de esterilizaciones eran factibles y humanos. Cuando los dirigentes nazis fueron juzgados por crmenes de guerra en los Juicios de Nremberg tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial, justificaron las esterilizaciones masivas (unas 450.000 en menos de una dcada) citando a los Estados Unidos como sus inspiradores.18

[editar] Otros pases

Casi todos los pases occidentales no catlicos adoptaron algunas leyes eugensicas. En julio de 1933 Alemania aprob una ley que permita la esterilizacin involuntaria de borrachos, criminales sexuales y lunticos hereditarios e incurables, y de aquellos que padezcan una enfermedad incurable que pudiera transmitirse a su descendencia.19 Canad llev a cabo miles de esterilizaciones forzosas hasta los aos 1970. Muchos First Nations (nativos canadienses), as como inmigrantes del este de Europa, fueron objeto de este programa que identificaba como genticamente inferiores a las minoras raciales y tnicas. Suecia esteriliz por la fuerza a 62.000 personas, principalmente enfermos mentales en las ltimas dcadas, pero tambin minoras tnicas y raciales al principio, como parte de un programa eugensico que dur 40 aos. Como fue el caso de otros programas, se crea que la etnia y la raza tenan relacin con la salud mental y fsica. Aunque el programa no era del agrado de muchos suecos, los polticos normalmente lo apoyaban, ms como un medio de mejorar la salud social que como la medida de proteccionismo racial que en realidad era (El gobierno sueco ha indemnizado posteriormente a los afectados). Aparte de los programas a gran escala de los Estados Unidos, otros pases como Australia, el Reino Unido, Noruega, Francia, Finlandia, Dinamarca, Estonia, Islandia y Suiza llevaron a cabo programas de esterilizacin de personas declaradas deficientes mentales por el estado. Singapur practic una forma limitada de eugenesia positiva que inclua la promocin del matrimonio entre graduados universitarios con la esperanza de que engendraran mejores hijos.20 Varios autores, notablemente Stephen Jay Gould, han afirmado repetidamente que las restricciones sobre la inmigracin aprobadas en los Estados Unidos durante los aos 1920 (y derogadas en 1965) estuvieron motivadas por las metas de la eugenesia, en particular por el deseo de excluir a las razas consideradas inferiores del acervo gentico nacional. Durante el comienzo del siglo XX, los Estados Unidos y Canad empezaron a recibir un nmero muy superior de inmigrantes del sur y el este de Europa. Eugenecistas influyentes como Lothrop Stoddard y Harry Laughlin (quien fue designado como testigo experto por el Comit del Congreso para Inmigracin y Naturalizacin en 1920) presentaban el argumento de que estas eran razas inferiores que contaminaran el acervo gentico nacional si su nmero no se restringa. Se ha argumentado que esto movi a Canad y los Estados Unidos a aprobar leyes que creaban una jerarqua de nacionalidades, clasificndolas desde los ms deseables anglosajones y nrdicos hasta los inmigrantes chinos y japoneses, a quienes se les prohibi casi completamente entrar al pas.21 Sin embargo, varias personas, incluyendo a Franz Samelson, Mark Snyderman y Richard Herrnstein, han argumentado que, basndose en el examen de los registros de los debates del Congreso sobre poltica de inmigracin, no se dio virtualmente consideracin alguna a estos factores. Segn estos autores, las restricciones fueron primordialmente motivadas por el deseo de mantener la integridad cultural del pas frente al fuerte influjo

de los extranjeros.22 Esta interpretacin, sin embargo, no es aceptada por la mayora de los historiadores de la eugenesia. En las ltimas dcadas, se ha denunciado en Australia el engao por parte de mdicos, que aprovechando el desconocimiento y confusin respecto a la medicina y lenguaje occidental, sonsacaban sesgadas autorizaciones para ejecutar ligaduras de trompas de Falopio de mujeres aborgenes, incluso sin hijos, cuando acudan a revisar otros problemas a los hospitales. Estas prcticas subrepticias buscaban reducir la natalidad entre las etnias naturales del continente. Algunos de los que no estn de acuerdo con la idea de la eugenesia en general sostienen que a pesar de ello la legislacin eugensica tuvo beneficios. Margaret Sanger (fundadora de Planned Parenthood of America) hall que era una herramienta til para impulsar la legalizacin de los mtodos anticonceptivos. En su tiempo la eugenesia era vista por muchos como cientfica y progresista, como aplicacin natural del conocimiento sobre reproduccin al campo de la vida humana. Antes de los campos de exterminio de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la idea de que la eugenesia pudiera llevar al genocidio no era considerada seriamente.

[editar] Estigmatizacin de la eugenesia en los aos siguientes al nazismo

En las dcadas siguientes a la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la eugenesia se hizo cada vez ms impopular para la ciencia acadmica. Muchas organizaciones y publicaciones que tuvieron su origen en el movimiento eugensico empezaron a distanciarse de dicha filosofa, como cuando Eugenics Quarterly se convirti en Social Biology en 1969. Tras la experiencia de la Alemania nazi, polticos y miembros de la comunidad cientfica renegaron pblicamente de muchas de las ideas sobre la higiene racial y los miembros no aptos de la sociedad. Los Juicios de Nuremberg contra antiguos dirigentes nazis revelaron al mundo muchas de las prcticas genocidas del rgimen y llevaron a la formalizacin de polticas de tica mdica y la declaracin sobre las razas de la UNESCO en 1950. Muchas sociedades cientficas publicaron sus propias declaraciones raciales parecidas con los aos, y la Declaracin Universal de los Derechos Humanos, desarrollada en respuesta a los abusos cometidos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, fue adoptada por la ONU, afirma en su Artculo 16 que Los hombres y las mujeres, a partir de la edad nbil, tienen derecho, sin restriccin alguna por motivos de raza, nacionalidad o religin, a casarse y fundar una familia.23 A continuacin, la declaracin de la UNESCO en 1978 sobre la raza y los prejuicios raciales declara que la igualdad fundamental de todos los seres humanos es el ideal hacia el que deberan converger la tica y la ciencia.24

Como reaccin a los abusos nazis, la eugenesia pas a ser casi universalmente vilipendiada en muchas de las naciones en las que haba sido una vez popular (sin embargo, los programas eugensicos, inluyendo la esterilizacin, continuaron discretamente durante dcadas). Muchos eugenesistas dedicados antes de la guerra a lo que ms tarde sera calificado como criptoeugenesia enterraron decididamente sus creencias eugensicas y se convirtieron en respetados antroplogos, bilogos y genetistas en la posguerra (incluyendo a Robert Yerkes en los Estados Unidos y Otmar von Verschuer en Alemania). El eugenesista californiano Paul Popenoe fund la orientacin familiar durante los aos 1950, un cambio de profesin que surgi de sus intereses eugensicos por promover los matrimonios saludables entre personas aptas.25 Los libros de texto de educacin secundaria y universitaria solan tener entre 1920 y 1940 captulos sobre el progreso cientfico que supondra la aplicacin de principios eugensicos sobre la poblacin. Muchas publicaciones cientficas antiguas dedicadas a la gentica eran editadas por eugenesistas e incluan artculos eugensicos junto con estudios sobre la herencia en organismos no humanos. Despus de que la eugenesia cayese en desgracia ante la comunidad cientfica, la mayor parte de las referencias a la eugenesia fueron eliminadas de los libros de texto y de las subsecuentes ediciones de las publicaciones importantes. Incluso cambiaron los nombres de algunas publicaciones para reflejar las nuevas actitudes. Por ejemplo, Eugenics Quarterly se convirti en 1969 en Social Biology (la revista sigue existiendo, pero se parece poco a su predecesora). Entre los miembros notables de la American Eugenics Society (192294) durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX se incluyen Joseph Fletcher, creador de la tica situacional; el Dr. Clarence Gamble de la farmacutica Procter & Gamble y Garrett Hardin, un defensor del control de natalidad y autor de La tragedia de los comunes. A pesar del cambio de actitud de la posguerra sobre la eugenesia en los Estados Unidos y Europa, unos pocos pases, notablemente Canad y Suecia, mantuvieron programas eugensicos a gran escala, incluyendo la esterilizacin forzosa de inviduos con taras mentales, as como otras prcticas, hasta los aos 1970. En los Estados Unidos, las esterilizaciones se abolieron en los aos 1960, a pesar de que el movimiento eugensico haba perdido la mayor parte de su popularidad y apoyo poltico a finales de los aos 1930.26

[editar] Eugenesia moderna e ingeniera gentica

Artculo principal: Eugenesia liberal

Desde comienzos de los aos 1980, cuando el conocimiento sobre la gentica avanz significativamente, la historia y conceptos eugensicos han sido ampliamente discutidos. Esfuerzos como el Proyecto Genoma Humano han logrado que la modificacin efectiva de la especie humana vuelva a parecer posible (como hizo la teora original de la evolucin de Darwin en los aos 1860, junto con el redescubrimiento de las leyes de Mendel a principios del siglo XX). La diferencia a principios del siglo XXI fue la actitud cautelosa hacia la eugenesia, que se haba convertido en una consigna a temer ms que abrazar. Slo unos pocos investigadores cientficos (como el controvertido psiclogo Richard Lynn) han pedido abiertamente la adopcin de polticas eugensicas usando tecnologa moderna, pero representan una opinin minoritaria en los actuales crculos cientficos y culturales.27 Un intento de implantacin de una forma de eugenesia fue un banco de esperma de genios (1980-99) creado por Robert Klark Graham, del que fueron concebidos cerca de 230 nios (el donante ms conocido fue el ganador del premio Nobel William Shockley). Sin embargo, en Estados Unidos y Europa estos intentos han sido frecuentemente criticados por tener el mismo espritu racista y clasista que las iniciativas eugensicas de los aos 1930. En cualquier caso, los resultados han sido desiguales en el mejor de los casos.

Debido a su relacin con la esterilizacin forzosa y los ideales raciales del Partido Nazi, la palabra eugenesia rara vez es usada por los defensores de tales programas. Slo unos pocos gobiernos tienen actualmente algo parecido a un programa eugensico en el mundo. En 1994 China aprob la Ley de Asistencia Sanitaria Maternal e Infantil, que inclua una exploracin premarital obligatoria para enfermedades genticas de naturaleza grave y enfermedades mentales relevantes. A quienes diagnosticaban tales enfermedades se les obligaba a no casarse, a aceptar medidas anticonceptivas a largo plazo o a someterse a la esterilizacin. Una poltica parecida de exploraciones (incluyendo la exploracin prenatal y el aborto) destinada a reducir la incidencia de la talasemia existe en las dos partes de la isla de Chipre. Desde la implantacin del programa en los aos 1970, se ha reducido el porcentaje de nios nacidos con esta enfermedad sangunea hereditaria de 1 de cada 158 a prcticamente cero. Dor Yeshorim, un programa que busca reducir la incidencia de la enfermedad de Tay-Sachs en ciertas comunidades judas, es otro programa de diagnstico que ha atrado comparaciones con la eugenesia. En Israel, a costa del estado, se anima a la poblacin en general a realizar pruebas genticas para diagnosticar enfermedades antes del nacimiento de un beb. Si se diagnostica la enfermedad de Tay-Sachs a un feto puede optarse por la interrupcin del embarazo de forma voluntaria. La mayora de las dems comunidades judas askenazes tambin efectan programas de diagnstico debido a las altas tasas de incidencia de ciertas enfermedades hereditarias. En algunas comunidades judas, la antigua costumbre de la tercera (shidduch) se sigue practicando, y en un intento por evitar la tragedia de la muerte infantil que siempre resulta de ser homocigtico para la Tay-Sachs, asociaciones como la fuertemente religiosa Dor Yeshorim (que fue fundada por un rab que perdi cuatro hijos por esta enfermedad para evitar que otros sufrieran la misma tragedia) realizan pruebas a las parejas jvenes para comprobar si tienen riesgo de transmitir esta enfermedad o alguna otra mortal. Si ambos resultan ser portadores de Tay-Sachs, es frecuente que el compromiso se rompa. El Judasmo, como muchas otras religiones, desaconseja el aborto salvo que haya riesgo para la madre, en cuyo caso la salud de sta tiene preferencia. Debe tambin advertirse que, dado que todos los nios con la enfermedad morirn en su infancia, estos programas intentan evitar tales tragedias ms que directamente erradicar el gen, lo que es una coincidencia secundaria. En la literatura biotica moderna, la historia de la eugenesia presenta muchas cuestiones morales y ticas. Los comentaristas han sugerido que la nueva eugenesia surgir de tecnologas reproductivas que permitirn a los padres crear los llamados bebs de diseo (lo que el bilogo Lee M. Silver denomin prominentemente reprogentica). Se ha argumentado que este tipo no coactivo de mejora biolgica estar predominantemente motivada por la competitividad individual y el deseo de lograr las mejores oportunidades para los hijos ms que por el impulso de mejorar la especie completa que caracteriz las formas de eugenesia de principios del siglo XX. Debido a esta naturaleza no coactiva, la falta de implicacin del estado y las diferencias en las metas, algunos comentaristas han cuestionado que estas actividades sean eugensicas o algo ms en conjunto. Algunos activistas prominusvlidos argumentan que aunque sus discapacidades pueden provocarles dolor y malestar, lo que realmente les incapacita como miembros de la sociedad es un sistema sociocultural que no reconoce su derecho a un trato genuinamente igualitario. Tambin se muestran escpticos sobre que alguna forma de eugenesia pudiera beneficiar a los discapacitados si se tiene en cuenta el trato que le dispensaron las campaas eugensicas histricas.

James D. Watson, el primer director del Proyecto Genoma Humano, inici el Programa de Implicaciones ticas, Legales y Sociales (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Program), que ha financiado varios estudios sobre las implicaciones de la ingeniera gentica humana (junto con un importante sitio web sobre la historia de la eugenesia), porque: Al situar la tica tan pronto en la agenda del genoma, est dando respuesta a mi propio temor personal de que demasiado pronto los crticos del Proyecto Genoma Humano sealaran que era un representante del Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory que una vez alberg a la controvertida Eugenics Record Office. Mi no formacin de un programa tico sobre el genoma podra rpidamente ser usada como falsa evidencia de que era un eugenesista secreto, teniendo como propsito real a largo plazo la identificacin inequvoca de los genes que llevan a la estratificacin social y ocupaciones as como de los que justifican la discriminacin racial. James D. Watson, A passion for DNA: Genes, genomes, and society (Cold Spring Harbor, Nueva York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2000): 202. Distinguidos genetistas incluyendo a los ganadores del premio Nobel John Sulston (No creo que uno deba traer al mundo a un nio claramente minusvlido)28 y Watson (Una vez que tienes una forma para mejorar a nuestro hijos, nadie puede detenerla)29 apoyan el diagnstico gentico. Qu ideas deberan ser descritas como eugensicas sigue siendo un asunto polmico en crculos de investigadores y de opinin pblica. Algunos observadores como Philip Kitcher han descrito el uso del diagnstico gentico por parte de los padres como la habilitacin de una forma de eugenesia voluntaria.30 Algunas subculturas modernas defienden diferentes formas de eugenesia apoyada por clonacin humana e ingeniera gentica humana, algunas veces como parte de un nuevo culto (vase el movimiento raeliano, cosmotesmo o prometesmo). Estos grupos hablan tambin de neo-eugenesia, evolucin consciente o libertad gentica. Los rasgos conductuales identificados tambin como potenciales objetivos de modificacin mediante ingeniera gentica humana incluyen la inteligencia, la depresin, la esquizofrenia, el alcoholismo, el comportamiento (u orientacin) sexual y la delincuencia. Ms recientemente, en el Reino Unido podra decirse que el caso La Corona contra James Edward Whittaker-Williams sent un precedente al prohibir el contacto sexual entre personas con problemas de aprendizaje. El acusado, un hombre con problemas de aprendizaje, fue encarcelado por besar y abrazar a una mujer de la misma condicin. Este fallo se bas en la Ley de Delitos Sexuales de 2003, que redefine los besos y abrazos como sexuales y afirma que las personas con problemas de aprendizaje son incapaces de dar su consentimiento independientemente de que el acto implique coaccin o no. Los opositores a esta ley la han atacado por traer de vuelta la eugenesia por la puerta de atrs bajo el disfraz de la exigencia de consentimiento.31

[editar] Crticas
[editar] Enfermedades frente a rasgos
Mientras la ciencia de la gentica ha provisto cada vez ms medios para poder identificar y entender ciertas caractersticas y enfermedades, dada la complejidad de la gentica humana, la cultura y la psicologa, no

hay en este momento medio alguno para determinar qu rasgos seran definitivamente deseables o indeseables. Las manipulaciones eugensicas destinadas a reducir la propensin hacia la criminalidad y la violencia, por ejemplo, podran resultar en que la poblacin terminase siendo esclavizada por un agresor externo si pierde la capacidad de defenderse a s misma. Por otra parte, las enfermedades genticas como la hemocromatosis puede incrementar la vulnerabilidad ante algunas dolencias, provocar deformidades fsicas y otras disfunciones. Las medidas eugensicas contra muchas de estas enfermedades ya estn siendo emprendidas en pases de todo el mundo, mientras las medidas contra rasgos que afectan ms sutilmente y se entienden peor, como la criminalidad, estn relegadas al mbito de la especulacin y la ciencia ficcin. Los efectos de las enfermedades son en esencia totalmente negativos y las sociedades de todas partes buscan reducir su incidencia por varios medios, algunos de los cuales son eugensicos en todo salvo el nombre. Los otros rasgos que se discuten tienen efectos tanto positivos como negativos y generalmente no se controlan en la actualidad en ningn lugar.

[editar] Pendiente resbaladiza

Una crtica comnmente avanzada a la eugenesia es que, como queda demostrado por su historia, inevitablemente lleva a medidas que resultan poco ticas (Lynn 2001). H. L. Kaye escribi que la verdad obvia es que la eugenesia ha sido desacreditada por los crmenes de Hitler (Kaye 1989). R. L. Hayman argument que el movimiento eugensico es anacrnico, siendo reveladas sus implicaciones polticas por el Holocausto (Hayman 1990). Steven Pinker ha afirmado que es una opinin ortodoxa entre los acadmicos de izquierda que los genes implican genocidio. Ha respondido a esta opinin ortodoxa comparando la historia del marxismo, que tena la posicin opuesta a la del nazismo sobre los genes: Pero el siglo XX sufri dos ideologa que llevaron a genocidios. La otra, el marxismo, no tena uso para la raza, no crea en los genes y negaba que la naturaleza humana fuese un concepto significativo. Claramente, no es un nfasis en los genes o la evolucin lo que es peligroso. Lo es el deseo de rehacer la humanidad mediante mtodos coactivos (eugenesia o ingeniera social) y la creencia de que la humanidad avanza gracias a una lucha en la que los grupos superiores (raza o clases) triunfan sobre los inferiores Steve Sailer32 Richard Lynn argumenta que cualquier filosofa social es susceptible de uso tico incorrecto. Aunque los principios cristianos han ayudado a la abolicin de la esclavitud y la institucin de programas de bienestar social, Lynn advierte que la iglesia cristiana tambin ha quemado a muchos disidentes y ha hecho la guerra contra los infieles, asesinando los cruzados cristianos a gran nmero de mujeres y nios. Tambin argumenta que la respuesta apropiada es condenar estas muertes, pero creer que el cristianismo inevitablemente lleva a la exterminacin de aquellos que no aceptan su doctrina carece de justificacin (Lynn 2001).

[editar] Diversidad gentica

Las polticas eugensicas tambin llevan a perder diversidad gentica, en cuyo caso una mejora culturalmente aceptada del acervo gentico puede, si bien no necesariamente, terminar en un desastre biolgico debido a una mayor vulnerabilidad a las enfermedades, menor capacidad de adaptacin a los cambios ambientales y otros factores tanto conocidos como desconocidos. Este tipo de argumento

procedente del principio de precaucin es a su vez ampliamente criticado. Un plan eugensico a largo plazo es probable que lleve a su escenario parecido debido a que la eliminacin de rasgos considerados indeseables reducira la diversidad gentica por definicin. Por el contrario, algunos estudios parecen mostrar que las tendencias disgensicas llevan a una menor diversidad gentica, una tendencia que en teora podra ser contrarrestada con un programa eugensico. La posible eliminacin del genotipo del autismo es un asunto poltico importante para el movimiento por los derechos de los autistas, que sostiene que el autismo es una forma de neurodiversidad. Muchos defensores de los derechos de los afectados por el sndrome de Down (trisoma del par 21) consideran esta enfermedad un tipo de neurodiversidad, a pesar de que los hombres afectados suelen ser estriles.

[editar] Rasgos recesivos heterocigticos

En algunos casos los esfuerzos por erradicar ciertas mutaciones de un nico gen resultaran baldos. En el caso de que la enfermedad en cuestin fuese un rasgo recesivo heterocigtico, el problema es que tras la eliminacin del rasgo visible no deseado, quedaran an tantos genes para la enfermedad en el genoma como los que fueron eliminados en virtud del principio de Hardy-Weinberg, que afirma que los genes de una poblacin se definen como pp+2pq+qq en el punto de equilibrio. Mediante el diagnstico gentico sera posible detectar todos los rasgos recesivos heterocigticos, pero supondra un coste enorme con la tecnologa actual. Bajo circunstancias normales slo es posible eliminar un alelo dominante del genoma. Los rasgos recesivos pueden ser reducidos drsticamente, pero nunca eliminados a menos que se conozca la composicin gentica completa de todos los miembros de la poblacin, como se ha mencionado antes. Dado que slo unos pocos rasgos indeseados, como la enfermedad de Huntington, son dominantes, el valor prctico de eliminar rasgos es bastante bajo.

[editar] Contraargumentos
[editar] Reductio ad Hitlerum
Algn sitio web sobre lgica ha usado la sentencia La eugenesia debe ser mala porque estuvo relacionada con los nazis como un ejemplo tpico de la falacia de asociacin conocida como reductio ad Hitlerum.33 La estigmatizacin de la eugenesia por esta asociacin, por otra parte, no ha frenado en absoluto la aplicacin de tecnologa mdicas que disminuyen la incidencia de los defectos congnicos ni tampoco la investigacin sobre sus causas.

[editar] Disgenesia
Los defensores de la eugenesia a menudo se preocupan por el declive disgensico de la inteligencia, que creen que llevar al colapso de la actual civilizacin y que tambin ha sido la causa del colapso de anteriores civilizaciones. Este declive hara que la eugenesia fuese un mal necesario, ya que el posible sufrimiento humano provocado por ella palidecera en comparacin con dicha catstrofe.

[editar] Beneficios
Pequeas diferencias en el CI medio de todo el grupo podran tericamente tener grandes efectos sobre los resultados sociales. Herrnstein y Murray alteraron el CI medio (100) de la muestra del National Longitudinal Survey of Youth estadounidense borrando aleatoriamente a individuos con un CI inferior a 103 hasta que la media poblacional subi a 103. Este clculo fue realizado dos veces y promediado para evitar errores de la seleccin aleatoria. El nuevo grupo con un CI medio de 103 result tener una tasa de pobreza un 25% menos que un grupo con un CI medio de 100. Tambin se midieron correlaciones sustanciales parecidas en las tasas de fracaso escolar, criminalidad y otros indicadores. Se sigue discutiendo sobre si un incremento global de la inteligencia realmente incrementa la salud nacional, pues el CI est parcialmente correlacionado con el estatus socioeconmico, que no cambiara en absoluto.

[editar] La eugenesia en la cultura popular

La eugenesia es un tema recurrente en la ciencia ficcin (a menudo distpica). La novela Un mundo feliz de Aldous Huxley explora el tema en profundidad, al igual que la ms reciente (y cientficamente actualizada) pelcula Gattaca, cuya trama gira en torno al diagnstico gentico. Boris Vian (bajo el pseudnimo Vernon Sullivan) adopt un enfoque ms alegre en su novela Que se mueran los feos. Algunas de las novelas que tocan este tema son La puerta al pas de las mujeres de Sheri S. Tepper y Esa horrible fortaleza de C. S. Lewis. Las Guerras Eugensicas son una parte importante de la historia de fondo del universo de Star Trek (episodios Semilla espacial, Tierra fronteriza, Estacin Fra 12, Los amplificados y la pelcula La ira de Khan). La eugenesia es tambin una parte importante de la trama de la pelcula de James Bond Moonraker (el personaje del villano Sir Hugo Drax fue basado en Adolf Hitler). En la serie de novelas Dune de Frank Herbert los programas de reproduccin selectiva constituyen un tema importante. Al comienzo de la serie, la orden religiosa Bene Gesserit manipula los patrones reproductivos durante muchas generaciones para crear al Kwisatz Haderach. En Dios Emperador de Dune, el emperador Leto II vuelve a manipular la reproduccin humana para lograr sus propios fines. Los Bene Tleilax tambin emplearon la ingeniera gentica para crear seres humanos con atributos genticos concretos. Tiende a haber una contracorriente eugensica en el concepto de ciencia ficcin del supersoldado. Varias representaciones de estos supersoldados suelen mostrarlos criados para el combate o seleccionados genticamente para que tengan rasgos beneficiosos para el combate. En las novelas Los hijos de Matusaln y Tiempo para amar de Robert A. Heinlein, se crea un gran fondo de inversiones para dar incentivos financieros a los matrimonios (las Familias Howard) entre personas cuyos padres y abuelos han sido longevos. El resultado es un subconjunto de la poblacin de la Tierra que tiene una esperanza de vida significativamente mayor que la media. Los miembros de este grupo aparecen en muchas de las otras obras de este autor. En el libro de Eoin Colfer The Supernaturalist, Ditto es un beb Bartoli, nombre de un experimento fallido del famoso Dr. Bartoli, quien intent crear una raza superior de humanos, pero termin en desarrollo atrofiado, con mutaciones, incluyendo percepcin extrasensorial e imposicin de manos.

En la serie televisiva de ciencia ficcin de Gene Roddenberry Andrmeda, toda la raza nietzscheana est fundada sobre los principios de la reproduccin selectiva. En la serie del Mundo Anillo, de Larry Niven, el personaje Teela Brown es un resultado de varias generaciones de ganadores de la lotera de la procreacin, un sistema que intenta animar a las personas ganadoras a procrear. En la 2 temporada de Dark Angel, el principal villano Ames White es miembro de una secta conocida como el Cnclave, que ha infiltrado en varios niveles de la sociedad a una raza de superhumanos. Esta secta intenta exterminar a todos los transgnicos, incluyendo al protagonista Max Guevara, a quien ven como un ser genticamente impuro por tener algn ADN animal mezclado con el ADN humano.
Vase tambin: Ingeniera gentica en la ficcin

Abortion Was Legal Abortion has been performed for thousands of years, and in every society that has been studied. It was legal in the United States from the time the earliest settlers arrived. At the time the Constitution was adopted, abortions before "quickening" were openly advertised and commonly performed. Making Abortion Illegal In the mid-to-late 1800s states began passing laws that made abortion illegal. The motivations for antiabortion laws varied from state to state. One of the reasons included fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly arriving immigrants, whose birth rates were higher than those of "native" Anglo-Saxon women. Medical Practice During the 1800s, all surgical procedures, including abortion, were extremely risky. Hospitals were not common, antiseptics were unknown, and even the most respected doctors had only primitive medical educations. Without today's current technology, maternal and infant mortality rates during childbirth were extraordinarily high. The dangers from abortion were similar to the dangers from other surgeries that were not outlawed. As scientific methods began to dominate medical practice, and technologies were developed to prevent infection, medical care on the whole became much safer and more effective. But by this time, the vast majority of women who needed abortions had no choice but to get them from illegal practitioners without these medical advances at their disposal. The "back alley" abortion remained a dangerous, often deadly procedure, while areas of legally sanctioned medicine improved dramatically. The Medical Establishment The strongest force behind the drive to criminalize abortion was the attempt by doctors to establish for themselves exclusive rights to practice medicine. They wanted to prevent "untrained" practitioners, including midwives, apothecaries, and homeopaths, from competing with them for patients and for patient fees.

The best way to accomplish their goal was to eliminate one of the principle procedures that kept these competitors in business. Rather than openly admitting to such motivations, the newly formed American Medical Association (AMA) argued that abortion was both immoral and dangerous. By 1910 all but one state had criminalized abortion except where necessary, in a doctor's judgment, to save the woman's life. In this way, legal abortion was successfully transformed into a "physicians-only" practice. Back-Alley Abortions The prohibition of legal abortion from the 1880s until 1973 came under the same anti-obscenity or Comstock laws that prohibited the dissemination of birth control information and services. Criminalization of abortion did not reduce the numbers of women who sought abortions. In the years before Roe v. Wade, the estimates of illegal abortions ranged as high as 1.2 million per year.1 Although accurate records could not be kept, it is known that between the 1880s and 1973, many thousands of women were harmed as a result of illegal abortion. Many women died or suffered serious medical problems after attempting to self-induce their abortions or going to untrained practitioners who performed abortions with primitive methods or in unsanitary conditions. During this time, hospital emergency room staff treated thousands of women who either died or were suffering terrible effects of abortions provided without adequate skill and care. Some women were able to obtain relatively safer, although still illegal, abortions from private doctors. This practice remained prevalent for the first half of the twentieth century. The rate of reported abortions then began to decline, partly because doctors faced increased scrutiny from their peers and hospital administrators concerned about the legality of their operations. back to top Liberalization of Abortion Laws Between 1967 and 1973 one-third of the states liberalized or repealed their criminal abortion laws. However, the right to have an abortion in all states was only made available to American women in 1973 when the Supreme Court struck down the remaining restrictive state laws with its ruling in Roe v. Wade. back to top Roe v. Wade The 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade made it possible for women to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical practitioners. This led to dramatic decreases in pregnancy-related injury and death. The Roe case arose out of a Texas law that prohibited legal abortion except to save a woman's life. At that time, most other states had laws similar to the one in Texas. Those laws forced large numbers of women to resort to illegal abortions.

Jane Roe, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, represented all women who wanted abortions but could not get them legally and safely. Henry Wade was the Texas Attorney General who defended the law that made abortions illegal. After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans' right to privacy included the right of a woman to decide whether to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference. back to top After Roe v. Wade The reaction to Roe was swift. Supporters of legal abortion rejoiced and generally felt their battle was won. However, others faulted the Court for the decision. Those opposed to legal abortion immediately began working to prevent any federal or state funding for abortion and to undermine or limit the effect of the decision. Some turned to measures directly aimed at disrupting clinics where abortions were being provided. Their tactics have included demonstrating in front of abortion clinics, harassing people trying to enter, vandalizing clinic property, and blocking access to clinics. As time passed, the level of anti-abortion violence escalated. Increasingly, clinic bombings, physical attacks, and even murders endanger abortion providers and create a hostile environment for women seeking abortions. back to top Retreat from Roe v. Wade Initially, the framework of Roe v. Wade was the basis by which the constitutionality of state abortion laws was determined. In recent years, however, the Supreme Court has begun to allow more restrictions on abortion. For instance, the Supreme Court's ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992 established that states can restrict pre-viability abortions. Restrictions can be placed on first trimester abortions in ways that are not medically necessary, as long as the restrictions do not place an "undue burden" on women seeking abortion services. Many states now have restrictions in place such as parental involvement, mandatory waiting periods, and biased counseling. Only the requirement that a woman involve her spouse in her decision was disallowed. back to top

A Timeline of Reproductive Rights 1821: Connecticut passes the first law in the United States barring abortions after "quickening." 1860: Twenty states have laws limiting abortion. 1965: Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court decision strikes down a state law that prohibited giving married people information, instruction, or medical advice on contraception. 1967: Colorado is the first state to liberalize its abortion laws. 1970: Alaska, Hawaii, New York, and Washington liberalize abortion laws, making abortion available at the request of a woman and her doctor. 1972: Eisenstadt v. Baird Supreme Court decision establishes the right of unmarried people to use contraceptives. 1973: Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision strikes down state laws that made abortion illegal. 1976: Congress adopts the first Hyde Amendment barring the use of federal Medicaid funds to provide abortions to low-income women. 1977: A revised Hyde Amendment is passed allowing states to deny Medicaid funding except in cases of rape, incest, or "severe and long-lasting" damage to the woman's physical health. 1991: Rust v. Sullivan upholds the constitutionality of the 1988 "gag rule" which prohibits doctors and counselors at clinics which receive federal funding from providing their patients with information about and referrals for abortion. 1992: Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey reaffirms the "core" holdings of Roe that women have a right to abortion before fetal viability, but allows states to restrict abortion access so long as these restrictions do not impose an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions. 1994: Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act is passed by Congress with a large majority in response to the murder of Dr. David Gunn. The FACE Act forbids the use of "force, threat of force or physical obstruction" to prevent someone from providing or receiving reproductive health services. The law also provides for both criminal and civil penalties for those who break the law. 2000: Stenberg v. Carhart (Carhart I) rules that the Nebraska statute banning so-called "partial-birth abortion" is unconstitutional for two independent reasons: the statute lacks the necessary exception for preserving the health of the woman, and the definition of the targeted procedures is so broad as to prohibit abortions in the second trimester, thereby being an "undue burden" on women. This effectively invalidates 29 of 31 similar statewide bans. 2000: Food and Drug Administration approves mifepristone (RU-486) as an option in abortion care for very early pregnancy.

2003: A federal ban on abortion procedures is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The National Abortion Federation immediately challenges the law in court and is successful in blocking enforcement of the law for its members. 2004: NAF wins lawsuit against federal abortion ban. Justice Department appeals rulings by three trial courts against ban. Before you visit an abortion clinic or provider, we strongly encourage you to ask yourself these important health and safety questions: 1. Have you confirmed your pregnancy? Its important to be sure that you are pregnant; it is possible to receive a false indication of pregnancy. We can quickly connect you with a local pregnancy center that offers free, reliable pregnancy tests and other services that check the viability of your pregnancy. 2. Do you understand the risks involved in an abortion procedure? Abortion is a medical procedure and does involve the risk of physical harm. You have the legal right to be informed of the type of procedure you will receive, as well as any potential complications. Ask as many questions as you need, to make sure you understand all that is involved, physically and emotionally. 3. Did you investigate the qualifications of your potential abortion provider? Find out the name of the doctor who will perform your abortion procedure, and confirm that he or she is a licensed physician and a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist. Call and ask if the doctor has appropriate privileges to admit you to a hospital in the event that there is an emergency. Also, many states maintain public records about past medical malpractice judgments and settlements. Call your state agency (medical licensing board) to see if the doctor has been involved in any medical malpractice suits. 4. Ask how complications are handled. Abortion providers may not provide any follow-up or emergency care, should complications arise. Ask the abortion clinic if the abortion doctor has admitting privileges to a hospital nearby should you require emergency care. 5. Do you understand that its OK to change your mind? Abortion is your choicemeaning you can change your mind at any time. Its OK to say, I need more time to consider my decision, if you are in the waiting room or even on the table prepped for your procedure. Dont feel pressured to proceed just because you feel like you have to. Its your body; you have the right to listen to your instincts.

HISTORY OF ABORTION Over several centuries and in different cultures, there is a rich history of women helping each other to abort. Until the late 1800s, women healers in Western Europe and the U.S. provided abortions and trained other women to do so, without legal prohibitions. The State didn't prohibit abortion until the 19th century, nor did the Church lead in this new repression. In 1803, Britain first passed antiabortion laws, which then became stricter throughout the century. The U.S. followed as individual states began to outlaw abortion. By 1880, most abortions were illegal in the U.S., except those ``necessary to save the life of the woman.'' But the tradition of women's right to early abortion was rooted in U.S. society by then; abortionists continued to practice openly with public support, and juries refused to convict them. Abortion became a crime and a sin for several reasons. A trend of humanitarian reform in the mid-19th century broadened liberal support for criminalization, because at that time abortion was a dangerous procedure done with crude methods, few antiseptics, and high mortality rates. But this alone cannot explain the attack on abortion. For instance, other risky surgical techniques were considered necessary for people's health and welfare and were not prohibited. ``Protecting'' women from the dangers of abortion was actually meant to control them and restrict them to their traditional child-bearing role. Antiabortion legislation was part of an antifeminist backlash to the growing movements for suffrage, voluntary motherhood, and other women's rights in the 19th century. *For more information, see Linda Gordon's Woman's Body, Woman's Right, rev. ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 1990). At the same time, male doctors were tightening their control over the medical profession. Doctors considered midwives, who attended births and performed abortions as part of their regular practice, a threat to their own economic and social power. The medical establishment actively took up the antiabortion cause in the second half of the 19th century as part of its effort to eliminate midwives. Finally, with the declining birth rate among whites in the late 1800s, the U.S. government and the eugenics movement warned against the danger of ``race suicide'' and urged white, native-born women to reproduce. Budding industrial capitalism relied on women to be unpaid household workers, low-paid menial workers, reproducers, and socializers of the next generation of workers. Without legal abortion, women found it more difficult to resist the limitations of these roles. Then, as now, making abortion illegal neither eliminated the need for abortion nor prevented its practice. In the 1890s, doctors estimated that there were two million abortions a year in the U.S. (compared with one and a half million today). Women who are determined not to carry an unwanted pregnancy have always found some way to try to abort. All too often, they have resorted to dangerous, sometimes deadly methods, such as inserting knitting needles or coat hangers into the vagina and uterus, douching with dangerous solutions like lye, or swallowing strong drugs or chemicals. The coat hanger has become a symbol of the desperation of millions of women who have risked death to end a pregnancy. When these attempts harmed them, it was hard for women to obtain medical treatment; when these methods failed, women still had to find an abortionist.

Illegal Abortion Many of us do not know what it was like to need an abortion before legalization. Women who could afford to pay skilled doctors or go to another country had the safest and easiest abortions. Most women found it difficult if not impossible to arrange and pay for abortions in medical settings. With one exception, the doctors whom I asked for an abortion treated me with contempt, their attitudes ranging from hostile to insulting. One said to me, ``You tramps like to break the rules, but when you get caught you all come crawling for help in the same way.'' The secret world of illegal abortion was mostly frightening and expensive. Although there were skilled and dedicated laywomen and doctors who performed safe, illegal abortions, most illegal abortionists, doctors, and those who claimed to be doctors cared only about being well rewarded for their trouble. In the 1960s, abortionists often turned women away if they could not pay $1,000 or more in cash. Some male abortionists insisted on having sexual relations before the abortion. Abortionists emphasized speed and their own protection. They often didn't use anesthesia because it took too long for women to recover, and they wanted women out of the office as quickly as possible. Some abortionists were rough and sadistic. Almost no one took adequate precautions against hemorrhage or infection. Typically, the abortionist would forbid the woman to contact him or her again. Often she wouldn't know his or her real name. If a complication occurred, harassment by the law was a frightening possibility. The need for secrecy isolated women having abortions and those providing them. In the 1950s, about a million illegal abortions a year were performed in the U.S., and over a thousand women died each year as a result. Women who were victims of botched or unsanitary abortions came in desperation to hospital emergency wards, where some died of widespread abdominal infections. Many women who recovered from such infections found themselves sterile or chronically and painfully ill. The enormous emotional stress often lasted a long time. Poor women and women of color ran the greatest risks with illegal abortions. In 1969, 75% of the women who died from abortions (most of them illegal) were women of color. Of all legal abortions in that year, 90% were performed on white private patients. The Push for Legal Abortion In the 1960s, inspired by the civil rights and antiwar movements, women began to fight more actively for their rights. The fast-growing women's movement took the taboo subject of abortion to the public. Rage, pain, and fear burst out in demonstrations and speakouts as women burdened by years of secrecy got up in front of strangers to talk about their illegal abortions. Women marched and rallied and lobbied for abortion on demand. Civil liberties groups and liberal clergy joined in these efforts to support women. Reform came gradually. A few states liberalized abortion laws, allowing women abortions in certain circumstances (e.g., pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, being under 15 years of age) but leaving the decision up to doctors and hospitals. Costs were still high and few women actually benefited.

In 1970, New York State went further, with a law that allowed abortion on demand through the 24th week from the LMP if it was done in a medical facility by a doctor. A few other states passed similar laws. Women who could afford it flocked to the few places where abortions were legal. Feminist networks offered support, loans, and referrals and fought to keep prices down. But for every woman who managed to get to New York, many others with limited financial resources or mobility did not. Illegal abortion was still common. The fight continued; several cases before the Supreme Court urged the repeal of all restrictive state laws. On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the famous Roe v. Wade decision, stated that the ``right of privacy...founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty...is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.'' The Court held that through the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, only a pregnant woman and her doctor have the legal right to make the decision about an abortion. States can restrict second-trimester abortions only in the interest of the woman's safety. Protection of a ``viable fetus'' (able to survive outside the womb) is allowed only during the third trimester. If a pregnant woman's life or health is endangered, she cannot be forced to continue the pregnancy. Abortion After Legalization Though Roe v. Wade left a lot of power to doctors and to government, it was an important victory for women. Although the decision did not guarantee that women would be able to get abortions when they wanted to, legalization and the growing consciousness of women's needs brought better, safer abortion services. For the women who had access to legal abortions, severe infections, fever, and hemorrhaging from illegal or self- induced abortions became a thing of the past. Women health care workers improved their abortion techniques. Some commercial clinics hired feminist abortion activists to do counseling. Local women's groups set up public referral services, and women in some areas organized women-controlled nonprofit abortion facilities. These efforts turned out to be just the beginning of a longer struggle to preserve legal abortion and to make it accessible to all women. Although legalization greatly lowered the cost of abortion, it still left millions of women in the U.S., especially women of color and young, rural women, and/or women with low incomes, without access to safe, affordable abortions. State regulations and funding have varied widely, and second-trimester abortions are costly. Even when federal Medicaid funds paid for abortions, fewer than 20% of all public county and city hospitals actually provided them. This meant that about 40% of U.S. women never benefited from liberalized abortion laws. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, feminist health centers around the country provided low-cost abortions that emphasized quality of care, and they maintained political involvement in the reproductive rights movement. Competition from other abortion providers, harassment by the IRS, and a profit- oriented economy made their survival difficult. By the early 1990s, only 20 to 30 of these centers remained. Eroding Abortion Rights: After Roe v. Wade When the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, the antiabortion forces, led initially by the Catholic Church hierarchy, began a serious mobilization using a variety of political tactics including pastoral plans, political lobbying, campaigning, public relations, papal encyclicals, and picketing abortion clinics. The

Church hierarchy does not truly represent the views of U.S. Catholics on this issue or the practice of Catholic women, who have abortions at a rate slightly higher than the national average for all women. Other religious groups, like the Mormons and some representatives of Jewish orthodoxy, have traditionally opposed abortion. In the 1980s, rapidly growing fundamentalist Christian groups, which overlap with the New Right and ``right- to-life'' organizations, were among the most visible boosters of the antiabortion movement. These antiabortion groups talk as if all truly religious and moral people disapprove of abortion. This is not true now and never has been. The long-range goal of the antiabortion movement is to outlaw abortion. Their short-range strategy has been to attack access to abortion, and they have had successes. The most vulnerable women--young women; women with low incomes, of whom a disproportionate number are women of color; all women who depend on the government for their health care--have borne the brunt of these attacks on abortion rights. The antiabortion movement's first victory, a major setback to abortion rights, came in July 1976, when Congress passed the Hyde Amendment banning Medicaid funding for abortion unless a woman's life was in danger. Following the federal government, many states stopped funding ``medically unnecessary'' abortions. The result was immediate in terms of harm and discrimination against women living in poverty. In October 1977, Rosie Jimeaanez, a Texas woman, died from an illegal abortion in Mexico, after Texas stopped funding Medicaid abortions. It is impossible to count the number of women who have been harmed by the Hyde Amendment, but before Hyde, one-third of all abortions were Medicaid funded: 294,000 women per year. (Another 133,000 Medicaid-eligible women who needed abortions were unable to gain access to public funding for the procedure.) Without state funding, many women with unwanted pregnancies are forced to have babies, be sterilized, or have abortions using money needed for food, rent, clothing, and other necessities. Although a broad spectrum of groups fought against the Hyde Amendment, countering this attack on women who lack financial resources was not a priority of the pro-choice movement. There was no mass mobilization or public outcry. In the long run, this hurt the pro-choice movement, as the attack on Medicaid funding was the first victory in the antiabortion movement's campaign to deny access to abortion for all women. Young women's rights have been a particular target of the antiabortion movement. About 40% of the one million teens who become pregnant annually choose abortion. Parental involvement laws, requiring that minors seeking abortions either notify their parents or receive parental consent, affect millions of young women. As of early 1997, 35 states have these laws; 23 states enforce them. In some states, a physician is required to notify at least one parent either in person, by phone, or in writing. Health care providers face loss of license and sometimes criminal penalties for failure to comply. Antiabortion forces have also used illegal and increasingly violent tactics, including harassment, terrorism, violence, and murder. Since the early 1980s, clinics and providers have been targets of violence. Over 80% of all abortion providers have been picketed or seriously harassed. Doctors and other workers have been the object of death threats, and clinics have been subject to chemical attacks (for example, butyric acid), arson, bomb threats, invasions, and blockades. In the late 1980s, a group called Operation Rescue initiated a strategy of civil disobedience by blockading clinic entrances and getting arrested. There were thousands of arrests nationwide as clinics increasingly became political battlefields.

In the 1990s, antiabortionists increasingly turned to harassment of individual doctors and their families, picketing their homes, following them, and circulating ``Wanted'' posters. Over 200 clinics have been bombed. After 1992, the violence became deadly. The murder of two doctors and an escort at a clinic in Pensacola, Florida, was followed by the murder of two women receptionists at clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts. A health care provider spoke about the impact of the violence: The fear of violence has become part of the lives of every abortion provider in the country. As doctors, we are being warned not to open big envelopes with no return addresses in case a mail bomb is enclosed. I know colleagues who have had their homes picketed and their children threatened. Some wear bullet-proof vests and have remote starters for their cars. Even going to work and facing the disapproving looks from co-workers--isolation and marginalization from colleagues is part of it. The antiabortion movement continues to mount new campaigns on many fronts. Most recently, it has aggressively put out the idea that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer. In January 1997, the results of a Danish study, the largest to date (involving one and a half million women), showed that there is no connection.s3 Unlike previous studies, this one did not rely on interviews and women's reports but instead used data obtained from population registries about both abortion and breast cancer. Despite the lack of medical evidence and the fact that the scientific community does not recognize any link, the antiabortion movement continues to stir up fears about abortion and breast cancer. Legal but Out of Reach for Many Women We have learned that legalization is not enough to ensure that abortions will be available to all women who want and need them. In addition to a lack of facilities and trained providers, burdensome legal restrictions, including parental consent or notification laws for minors and mandatory waiting periods, create significant obstacles. A minor who has been refused consent by a parent may have to go through an intimidating and time-consuming judicial hearing. Mandatory waiting periods may require a woman to miss extra days of work because she must go to the clinic not once, but twice, to obtain an abortion. If travel is required, this can make the whole procedure unaffordable. In other words, for millions of women, youth, race, and economic circumstances together with the lack of accessible services--especially for later abortions-translate into daunting barriers, forcing some women to resort to unsafe and illegal abortions and selfabortions. WEAKENING THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION FOR ABORTION When in 1980 the Supreme Court upheld the Hyde Amendment, it began eroding the constitutional protection for abortion rights. Since then, there have been other severe blows. In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), the Court opened the door to new state restrictions on abortion. In Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990), the Court upheld one of the strictest parental notification laws in the country. These trends were further codified in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 decision upholding a highly restrictive Pennsylvania law that included mandatory waiting periods and mandatory biased counseling. Two frightening themes emerged in the Casey decision. First, the Court sanctioned the view that government may regulate the health care of pregnant women to protect fetal life from the moment of conception so long as it does not ``unduly burden'' access to an abortion. Second, the Court showed little concern for the severe impact of state restrictions on women with few financial resources.

In the aftermath of Casey, many states have passed similar restrictions, which have the effect of limiting access to abortion, especially for women with low incomes, teenage women, and women of color. These infringements on abortion access have curtailed the abortion rights of millions of women. In the face of the unrelenting efforts of the antiabortion movement, those of us who believe that women should make their own reproductive decisions will have to become involved in the ongoing struggle to preserve and expand abortion rights. REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM VS. POPULATION CONTROL While most women's health groups see the fight for abortion rights in the context of defending the rights of all women to make their own decisions about reproduction, not all advocates of abortion rights share this understanding. Some view legal abortion and contraception as tools of population control. Advocates of population control blame overpopulation for a range of problems, from global poverty to ethnic conflict and environmental degradation. Historically, this type of thinking has led to a range of coercive fertility control policies that target Third World women. These include sterilization without a woman's knowledge or consent; the use of economic incentives to ``encourage'' sterilization, a practice that undermines the very notion of reproductive choice; the distribution and sometimes coercive or unsafe use of contraceptive methods, often without appropriate information; the denial of abortion services; and sometimes coercive abortion. For example, HIV-positive women in the U.S. (who are overwhelmingly women of color) are often pressured to have abortions, though only 20 to 25% of their children will be HIVpositive and new treatments during pregnancy have reduced the likelihood even further. Women with few economic resources, especially women of color in the U.S. and throughout the world, have been the primary targets of population control policies. For example, although abortion has become increasingly less accessible in the U.S., sterilization remains all too available for women of color. The federal government stopped funding abortions in 1977, but it continues to pay for sterilizations. During the 1970s, women's health activists exposed various forms of sterilization abuse (see section on sterilization in chapter 13, Birth Control). Since the 1980s, advocates have fought against new policies that coerce women with low incomes into using Norplant, a long-term hormonal contraceptive. In the Third World, in addition to the widespread unavailability of desired contraceptives, there is a long history of coercive fertility control, primarily funded and inspired by developed countries, especially the U.S. (see chapter 26, The Global Politics of Women and Health, for the international dimensions of population control). The right to abortion is part of every woman's right to control her reproductive choices and her own life. We must reject all efforts to coerce women's reproductive decisions. The goals of reproductive rights activists must encompass the right to have children as well as the right not to. ABORTION ACCESS IN THE U.S.

It is conservatively estimated that one in five Medicaid-eligible women who want an abortion cannot obtain one. In the U.S., 84% of all counties have no abortion services; of rural counties, 95% have no services.

Nine in ten abortion providers are located in metropolitan areas. Only 17 states fund abortions. Only 12% of OB/GYN residency programs train in first-trimester abortions; only 7% in secondtrimester abortions. Abortion is the most common OB/GYN surgical procedure; yet, almost half of graduating OB/GYN residents have never performed a first-trimester abortion. Thirty-nine states have parental involvement laws requiring minors to notify and/or obtain the consent of their parents in order to obtain an abortion. Twenty-one states require state-directed counseling before a woman may obtain an abortion. (This is often called ``informed consent''; some critics call it a ``biased information requirement.'') Many states require women seeking abortions to receive scripted lectures on fetal development, prenatal care, and adoption. Twelve states currently enforce mandatory waiting periods following state- directed counseling; this can result in long delays and higher costs. (Seven more states have delay laws which are enjoined--i.e., not enforced due to court action at the federal or state level.)

Note: for sources on these statistics, please consult the book's notes at the end of this chapter. ABORTION WORLDWIDE Unsafe abortion is a major cause of death and health complications for women of child-bearing age. Whether or not an abortion is safe is determined in part by the legal status and restrictions, but also by medical practice, administrative requirements, the availability of trained practitioners, and facilities, funding, and public attitudes. While it is difficult to get reliable data on illegal and unsafe abortion, several well-known organizations and researchers, including the World Health Organization, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, and Family Health International, make the following estimates:

Worldwide, 20 million unsafe abortions are performed annually. This equals one unsafe abortion for every ten pregnancies and one unsafe abortion for every seven births. Ninety percent of unsafe abortions are in developing countries. One-third of all abortions worldwide are illegal. More than two-thirds of countries in the Southern Hemisphere have no access to safe, legal abortion. Estimates of the number of women who die worldwide from unsafe abortions each year range from 70,000 to 200,000. This means that between 13 and 20% of all maternal deaths are due to unsafe abortion--in some areas of the world, half of all maternal deaths. Of these deaths, 99% are in the developing world, and most are preventable. Half of all abortions take place outside the health care system. One-third of women seeking care for abortion complications are under the age of 20. About 40% of the world's population has access to legal abortion (almost all in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and North America), although laws often require the consent of parents, state committees, or physicians. Worldwide, 21% of women may obtain legal abortions for social or economic reasons. Sixteen percent of women have access only when a woman's health is at risk or in cases of rape, incest, or fetal defects.

Five percent have access only in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment. Eighteen percent have access only for life endangerment.

History of abortion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indirect advertisements for abortion services, like these in The New York Sun in 1842, were common during the Victorian era. At the time, abortion was illegal in New York.[1] The practice of abortion dates back to ancient times. Pregnancies were terminated through a number of methods, including the administration of abortifacient herbs, the use of sharpened implements, the application of abdominal pressure, and other techniques. Abortion laws and their enforcement have fluctuated through various eras. In the 20th century various women's rights groups, doctors and social reformers successfully repealed abortion bans. While abortion remains legal in many Western countries, it is regularly subjected to legal challenges by pro-life groups.[2]

Contents
[hide]

1 Medical: Practice & methods of abortion o 1.1 Prehistory to 5th century 1.1.1 References in classical literature 1.1.1.1 Hippocratic Oath 1.1.1.2 Soranus' Gynecology 1.1.1.3 Natural abortifacients 1.1.1.4 Roman Law 1.1.1.5 Christian texts o 1.2 5th century to 18th century 1.2.1 Natural abortifacients 1.2.2 Islamic world o 1.3 19th century to present 1.3.1 Advertisement of abortion services 1.3.2 Madame Restell 1.3.3 Development of contemporary methods 2 Social: History of abortion debate o 2.1 Prehistory to 5th century o 2.2 5th century to 16th century o 2.3 17th century to present 3 Legal: History of abortion law o 3.1 17th century to 19th century o 3.2 1920s to 1960s o 3.3 1970s to present 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Medical: Practice & methods of abortion

[edit] Prehistory to 5th century
The first recorded evidence of induced abortion, is from the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus in 1550 BCE.[3] A Chinese record documents the number of royal concubines who had abortions in China between the years 500 and 515 BC.[4] According to Chinese folklore, the legendary Emperor Shennong prescribed the use of mercury to induce abortions nearly 5000 years ago.[5] Many of the methods employed in early and primitive cultures were non-surgical. Physical activities like strenuous labor, climbing, paddling, weightlifting, or diving were a common technique. Others included the use of irritant leaves, fasting, bloodletting, pouring hot water onto the abdomen, and lying on a heated coconut shell.[6] In primitive cultures, techniques developed through observation, adaptation of obstetrical methods, and transculturation.[7] Archaeological discoveries indicate early surgical attempts at the extraction of a fetus; however, such methods are not

believed to have been common, given the infrequency with which they are mentioned in ancient medical texts.[8]

[edit] References in classical literature

Much of what is known about the methods and practice of abortion in Greek and Roman history comes from early classical texts. Abortion, as a gynecological procedure, was primarily the province of women who were either midwives or well-informed laypeople. In his Theaetetus, Plato mentions a midwife's ability to induce abortion in the early stages of pregnancy.[9][10]

[edit] Hippocratic Oath

The Oath is part of the Hippocratic Corpus. Often ascribed to Hippocrates, the Greek physician, the Corpus is believed to be the collective work of Hippocratic practitioners. The Oath forbids the use of pessaries (vaginal suppositories) to induce abortion. Modern scholarship suggests that pessaries were banned because they were reported to cause vaginal ulcers.[11] This specific prohibition has been interpreted by some medical scholars as prohibiting abortion in a broader sense than by pessary.[12] One such interpretation is by Scribonius Largus, a Roman medical writer: "Hippocrates, who founded our profession, laid the foundation for our discipline by an oath in which it was proscribed not to give a pregnant woman a kind of medicine that expels the embryo/fetus."[13] Regardless of the Oath's interpretation, Hippocrates writes of advising a prostitute who became pregnant to jump up and down, touching her buttocks with her heels at each leap, so as to induce miscarriage.[14] Other writings attributed to him describe instruments fashioned to dilate the cervix and curette inside of the uterus.
[15]

[edit] Soranus' Gynecology

Soranus, a 2nd century Greek physician, recommended abortion in cases involving health complications as well as emotional immaturity, and provided detailed suggestions in his work Gynecology. Diuretics, emmenagogues, enemas, fasting, and bloodletting were prescribed as safe abortion methods, although Soranus advised against the use of sharp instruments to induce miscarriage, due to the risk of organ perforation. He also advised women wishing to abort their pregnancies to engage in energetic walking, carrying heavy objects, riding animals, and jumping so that the woman's heels were to touch her buttocks with each jump, which he described as the "Lacedaemonian Leap".[14][16]

[edit] Natural abortifacients

Soranus offered a number of recipes for herbal bathes, rubs, and pessaries.[14] In De Materia Medica Libri Quinque, the Greek pharmacologist Dioscorides listed the ingredients of a draught called "abortion wine" hellebore, squirting cucumber, and scammony but failed to provide the precise manner in which it was to be prepared.[12] Hellebore, in particular, is known to be abortifacient.[17] Pliny the Elder cited the refined oil of common rue as a potent abortifacient. Serenus Sammonicus wrote of a concoction which consisted of rue, egg, and dill. Soranus, Dioscorides, Oribasius also detailed this

application of the plant. Modern scientific studies have confirmed that rue indeed contains three abortive compounds.[18] Birthwort, an herb used to ease childbirth, was also used to induce abortion. Galen included it in a potion formula in de Antidotis, while Dioscorides said it could be administered by mouth, or in the form of a vaginal pessary also containing pepper and myrrh.[19] The seeds of Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota), also known as wild carrot, have been in use as a postcoital agent for centuries.

[edit] Roman Law

Paulus wrote in his Sentences that "those who administer a beverage for the purpose of producing abortion, or of causing affection, although they may not do so with malicious intent, still, because the act offers a bad example, shall, if of humble rank, be sent to the mines; or, if higher in degree, shall be relegated to an island, with the loss of a portion of their property. If a man or a woman should lose his or her life through such an act, the guilty party shall undergo the extreme penalty." And also Ulpian, as it appears in the Digest regarding to the instutition of curator ventris (protector of the womb): "An unborn child is considered being born, as far as it concerns his profits".

[edit] Christian texts

See also: Christianity and abortion and History of early Christian thought on abortion Tertullian, a 2nd and 3rd century Christian theologian, also described surgical implements which were used in a procedure similar to the modern dilation and evacuation. One tool had a "nicely-adjusted flexible frame" used for dilation, an "annular blade" used to curette, and a "blunted or covered hook" used for extraction. The other was a "copper needle or spike". He attributed ownership of such items to Hippocrates, Asclepiades, Erasistratus, Herophilus, and Soranus.[20] Tertullian's description is prefaced as being used in cases in which abnormal positioning of the fetus in the womb would endanger the life of the pregnant women. Saint Augustine, in Enchiridion, makes passing mention of surgical procedures being performed to remove fetuses which have expired in utero.[21] Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a 1st century Roman encyclopedist, offers an extremely detailed account of a procedure to extract an already dead fetus in his only surviving work, De Medicina.[22] In Book 9 of Refutation of all Heresies, Hippolytus of Rome, another Christian theologian of the 3rd century, wrote of women tightly binding themselves around the middle so as to "expel what was being conceived."[23]

[edit] 5th century to 18th century

Bas relief at Angkor Wat, c.1150, depicting a demon performing an abortion. An 8th century Sanskrit text instructs women wishing to induce an abortion to sit over a pot of steam or stewed onions.[24] The technique of massage abortion, involving the application of pressure to the pregnant abdomen, has been practiced in Southeast Asia for centuries. One of the bas reliefs decorating the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, dated c.1150, depicts a demon performing such an abortion upon a woman who has been sent to the underworld.[3] Japanese documents show records of induced abortion from as early as the 12th century. It became much more prevalent during the Edo period, especially among the peasant class, who were hit hardest by the recurrent famines and high taxation of the age.[25] Statues of the Boddhisattva Jizo, erected in memory of an abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, or young childhood death, began appearing at least as early as 1710 at a temple in Yokohama (see religion and abortion).[26] Physical means of inducing abortion, such as battery, exercise, and tightening the girdle special bands were sometimes worn in pregnancy to support the belly were reported among English women during the early modern period.[27] Mori, who lived in New Zealand before and at the time of colonisation, terminated pregnancies via miscarriage-inducing drugs, ceremonial methods, and girding of the abdomen with a restrictive belt.[28] Another source claims that the Mori people did not practice abortion, for fear of Makutu, but did attempt abortion through the artificial induction of premature labor.[29]

[edit] Natural abortifacients

Art from a 13th-century illuminated manuscript features a herbalist preparing a concotion containing pennyroyal for a woman. Botanical preparations reputed to be abortifacient were common in classical literature and folk medicine. Such folk remedies, however, varied in effectiveness and were not without the risk of adverse effects. Some of the herbs used at times to terminate pregnancy are poisonous. A list of plants which cause abortion was provided in De viribus herbarum, an 11th-century herbal written in the form of a poem, the authorship of which is incorrectly attributed to Aemilius Macer. Among them were rue, Italian catnip, savory, sage, soapwort, cyperus, white and black hellebore, and pennyroyal.[12] King's American Dispensatory of 1898 recommended a mixture of brewer's yeast and pennyroyal tea as "a safe and certain abortive".[30] Pennyroyal has been known to cause complications when used as an abortifacient. In 1978 a pregnant woman from Colorado died after consuming 2 tablespoonfuls of pennyroyal essential oil[31][32] which is known to be toxic.[33] In 1994 a pregnant woman, unaware of an ectopic pregnancy that needed immediate medical care, drank a tea containing pennyroyal extract to induce abortion without medical help. She later died as a result of the untreated ectopic pregnancy, mistaking the symptoms for the abortifacient working.[34] Tansy has been used to terminate pregnancies since the Middle Ages.[35] It was first documented as an emmenagogue in St. Hildegard of Bingen's De simplicis medicinae.[12] A variety of juniper, known as savin, was mentioned frequently in European writings.[3] In one case in England, a rector from Essex was said to have procured it for a woman he had impregnated in 1574; in another, a man wishing to remove his girlfriend of like condition recommended to her that black hellebore and savin be boiled together and drunk in milk, or else that chopped madder be boiled in beer. Other substances reputed to have been used by the English include Spanish fly, opium, watercress seed, iron sulphate, and iron chloride. Another mixture, not abortifacient, but rather intended to relieve missed abortion, contained dittany, hyssop, and hot water.[27] The root of worm fern, called "prostitute root" in the French, was used in France and Germany; it was also recommended by a Greek physician in the 1st century. In German folk medicine, there was also an abortifacient tea, which included marjoram, thyme, parsley, and lavender. Other preparations of unspecified origin included crushed ants, the saliva of camels, and the tail hairs of black-tailed deer dissolved in the fat of bears.[24]

[edit] Islamic world

Main article: Islam and abortion During the medieval period, physicians in the Islamic world documented lists of birth control practices, including the use of abortifacients, commenting on their effectiveness and prevalence.[36]

[edit] 19th century to present

"Admonition against abortion." Late 19th-century Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock print. 19th century medicine saw advances in the fields of surgery, anaesthesia, and sanitation, in the same era that doctors with the American Medical Association lobbied for bans on abortion in the United States[37] and the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Offences against the Person Act 1861. Various methods of abortion were documented regionally in the 19th century and early 20th century. A paper published in 1870 on the abortion services to be found in Syracuse, New York, concluded that the method most often practiced there during this time was to flush inside of the uterus with injected water. The article's author, Ely Van de Warkle, claimed this procedure was affordable even to a maid, as a man in town offered it for $10 on an installment plan.[38] Other prices which 19th-century abortion providers are reported to have charged were much more steep. In Great Britain, it could cost from 10 to 50 guineas, or 5% of the yearly income of a lower middle class household.[3] In France during the latter half of the 19th century, social perceptions of abortion started to change. In the first half of the 19th century, abortion was viewed as the last resort for pregnant but unwed women. But as writers began to write about abortion in terms of family planning for married women, the practice of abortion was reconceptualized as a logical solution to unwanted pregnancies resulting from ineffectual contraceptives.[39] The formulation of abortion as a form of family planning for married women was made "thinkable" because both medical and non-medical practitioners agreed on the relative safety of the procedure.[39] In the United States and England, the latter half of the 19th century saw abortion become increasingly punished. One writer justified this by claiming that the number of abortions among married women had increased markedly since 1840.[40] In the United States, these laws had a limited effect on middle and upper class women who could, though often with great expense and difficulty, still obtain access to abortion, while poor and young women had access only to the most dangerous and illegal methods.[41]

After a rash of unexplained miscarriages in Sheffield, England, were attributed to lead poisoning caused by the metal pipes which fed the city's water supply, a woman confessed to having used diachylon a leadcontaining plaster as an abortifacient in 1898.[3] Criminal investigation of an abortionist in Calgary, Alberta in 1894 revealed through chemical analysis that the concoction he had supplied to a man seeking an abortifacient contained Spanish fly.[42] Women of Jewish descent in Lower East Side, Manhattan are said to have carried the ancient Indian practice of sitting over a pot of steam into the early 20th century.[24] Dr. Evelyn Fisher wrote of how women living in a mining town in Wales during the 1920s used candles intended for Roman Catholic ceremonies to dilate the cervix in an effort to self-induce abortion.[3] Similarly, the use of candles and other objects, such as glass rods, penholders, curling irons, spoons, sticks, knives, and catheters was reported during the 19th century in the United States.[43] Abortion remained a dangerous procedure into the early 20th century. Of the estimated 150,000 abortions that occurred annually in the US during the early 20th century, one in six resulted in the woman's death.[44]

[edit] Advertisement of abortion services

The text of this clandestine ad reads: "Dr. Caton's Tansy Pills! The most reliable remedy for ladies. Always safe, effectual, and the only guaranteed women's salvation. Price $1. Second advice free. R. F. Caton, Boston, Mass." Access to abortion continued, despite bans enacted on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, as the disguised, but nonetheless open, advertisement of abortion services, abortion-inducing devices, and abortifacient medicines in the Victorian era would seem to suggest.[45] Apparent print ads of this nature were found in both the United States,[46] the United Kingdom,[3] and Canada.[47] A British Medical Journal writer who replied to newspaper ads peddling relief to women who were "temporarily indisposed" in 1868 found that over half of them were in fact promoting abortion.[3]

An 1845 ad for "French Periodical Pills" warns against use by women who might be "en ciente [sic]" ("enceinte" is French for "pregnant").

A few alleged examples of surreptitiously-marketed abortifacients include "Farrer's Catholic Pills", "Hardy's Woman's Friend", "Dr. Peter's French Renovating Pills", "Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound",[48] and "Madame Drunette's Lunar Pills".[3] Patent medicines which claimed to treat "female complaints" often contained such ingredients as pennyroyal, tansy, and savin. Abortifacient products were sold under the promise of "restor[ing] female regularity" and "removing from the system every impurity."[48] In the vernacular of such advertising, "irregularity," "obstruction," "menstrual suppression," and "delayed period" were understood to be euphemistic references to the state of pregnancy. As such, some abortifacients were marketed as menstrual regulatives.[43] "Old Dr. Gordon's Pearls of Health," produced by a drug company in Montreal, "cure[d] all suppressions and irregularities" if "used monthly".[49] However, a few ads explicitly warned against the use of their product by women who were expecting, or listed miscarriage as its inevitable side effect. The copy for "Dr. Peter's French Renovating Pills" advised, " pregnant females should not use them, as they invariably produce a miscarriage", and both "Dr. Monroe's French Periodical Pills" and "Dr. Melveau's Portuguese Female Pills" were "sure to produce a miscarriage". [3] F.E. Karn, a man from Toronto, in 1901 cautioned women who thought themselves pregnant not to use the pills he advertised as "Friar's French Female Regulator" because they would "speedily restore menstrual secretions".[49]

"Dr. Miller's Female Monthly Powders" ad copy reprinted in an 1858 article condemning such advertising. Such advertising did not fail to arouse criticisms of quackery and immorality. The safety of many nostrums was suspect and the efficacy of others non-existent.[43] Horace Greeley, in a New York Herald editorial written in 1871, denounced abortion and its promotion as the "infamous and unfortunately common crime so common that it affords a lucrative support to a regular guild of professional murderers, so safe that its perpetrators advertise their calling in the newspapers".[46] Although the paper in which Greeley wrote accepted such advertisements, others, such as the New York Tribune, refused to print them.[46] Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to obtain a Doctor of Medicine in the United States, also lamented how such ads led to the contemporary synonymity of "female physician" with "abortionist".[46] The Comstock Law made all abortion-related advertising illegal in the United States (see history of abortion law).

[edit] Madame Restell

An advertisement for Madame Restell's services from an 1840 edition of the New York Herald. A well-known example of a Victorian-era abortionist was Madame Restell, or Ann Lohman, who over a forty year period illicitly provided both surgical abortion and abortifacient pills in the northern United States. She began her business in New York during the 1830s, and, by the 1840s, had expanded to include franchises in Boston and Philadelphia.

"The Female Abortionist." Madame Restell is portrayed as a villainess in an 1847 copy of the National Police Gazette. It is estimated that by 1870 her annual expenditure on advertising alone was $60,000.[3] One ad for Restell's medical services, printed in the New York Sun, promised that she could offer the "strictest confidence on complaints incidental to the female frame" and that her "experience and knowledge in the treatment of cases of female irregularity, [was] such as to require but a few days to effect a perfect cure".[50] Another, addressed to married women, asked the question, "Is it desirable, then, for parents to increase their families, regardless of consequences to themselves, or the well-being of their offspring, when a simple, easy, healthy, and certain remedy is within our control?"[51] Advertisements for the "Female Monthly Regulating Pills" she also sold vowed to resolve "all cases of suppression, irregularity, or stoppage of the menses, however

obdurate."[50] Madame Restelle was an object of criticism in both the respectable and penny presses. She was first arrested in 1841, but, it was her final arrest by Anthony Comstock which led to her suicide on the day of her trial April 1, 1878.[51]

[edit] Development of contemporary methods

Soviet poster c.1925 warns against unsafe abortion. Title translation: "Abortions performed by either trained or self-taught midwives not only maim the woman, they also often lead to death." Although prototypes of the modern curette are referred to in ancient texts, the instrument which is used today was initially designed in France in 1723, but was not applied specifically to a gynecological purpose until 1842.[52] Dilation and curettage has been practiced since the late 19th century.[52] The 20th century saw improvements in abortion technology, increasing its safety, and reducing its sideeffects. Vacuum devices, first described in medical literature in the 19th century, allowed for the development of suction-aspiration abortion.[52] This method was practiced in the Soviet Union, Japan, and China, before being introduced to Britain and the United States in the 1960s.[52] The invention of the Karman cannula, a flexible plastic cannula which replaced earlier metal models in the 1970s, reduced the occurrence of perforation and made suction-aspiration methods possible under local anesthesia.[52] In 1971, Lorraine Rothman and Carol Downer, founding members of the feminist self-help movement, invented the Del-Em, a safe, cheap suction device that made it possible for people with minimal training to perform early abortions called menstrual extraction.[52] During the mid-1990s in the United States the medical community showed renewed interest in manual vacuum aspiration as a method of early surgical abortion. This resurgence is due to technological advances that permit early pregnancy detection (as soon as a week after conception) and a growing popular demand for safe, effective early abortion options, both surgical and medical. An innovator in the development of early surgical abortion services is Jerry Edwards, a physician, who developed a protocol in which women are offered an abortion using a handheld vacuum syringe as soon as a positive pregnancy test is received. This protocol also allows the early detection of an ectopic pregnancy.[52] Intact dilation and extraction was developed by Dr. James McMahon in 1983. It resembles a procedure used in the 19th century to save a woman's life in cases of obstructed labor, in which the fetal skull was first punctured with a perforator, then crushed and extracted with a forceps-like instrument, known as a cranioclast.[53][54] In 1980, researchers at Roussel Uclaf in France developed mifepristone, a chemical compound which works as an abortifacient by blocking hormone action. It was first marketed in France under the trade name Mifegyne in 1988.[55]

[edit] Social: History of abortion debate

Main article: Abortion debate Social discourses regarding abortion have historically been related to issues of family planning, religious and moral ideology, and human rights.

[edit] Prehistory to 5th century

Abortion was a common practice. Evidence suggests that late-term abortions were performed in a number of cultures. In Greece, the Stoics believed the fetus to be plantlike in nature, and not an animal until the moment of birth, when it finally breathed air. They therefore found abortion morally acceptable.[56][57] The Greek playwright Aristophanes noted the abortifacient property of pennyroyal in 421 BC, through a humorous reference in his comedy, Peace.[34]

Cyrenian coin with an image of silphium. The ancient Greeks relied upon the herb silphium an abortifacient and contraceptive. The plant, as the chief export of Cyrene, was driven to extinction, but it is suggested that it might have possessed the same abortive properties as some of its closest extant relatives in the Apiaceae family. Silphium was so central to the Cyrenian economy that most of its coins were embossed with an image of the plant.[58] In Rome, abortion was forbidden and sometimes severely punished by the jurisprudence (Digest 47.11.14, 48.8.8, 48.19.39, 48.8.3.2., 48.19.38.5) and nevertheless practiced "with little or no sense of shame."[59] There were also opposing voices, most notably Hippocrates of Cos in Greece and the Roman Emperor Augustus. Aristotle wrote that, "[T]he line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive."[60] In contrast to their pagan environment, Christians generally shunned abortion, drawing upon early Christian writings such as the Didache (c.150 A.D.), which says: " do not murder a child by abortion or kill a new-born infant."[61] Saint Augustine believed that abortion of a fetus animatus, a fetus with human limbs and shape, was murder. However, his beliefs on earlier-stage abortion were similar to Aristotle's,[62] though he could neither deny nor affirm whether such unformed fetuses would be resurrected as full people at the time of the second coming.[63]

"Now who is there that is not rather disposed to think that unformed abortions perish, like seeds that have never fructified?"[21] "And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man's power to resolve it: At what time the infant begins to live in the womb: whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of

the living being. To deny that the young who are cut out limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too audacious."[64]

[edit] 5th century to 16th century

""early period" the Church treated abortion of the pre-quickened fetus as anticipated homicide, homicide by intent, or quasi-homicide c. 1115 Leges Henrici Primi treated pre-quickening abortion as a misdemeanour, and post quickening abortion as quasi-homicide, carrying a lesser penalty than homicide 1487 Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), a witch-hunting manual, is published in Germany. It accuses midwives who perform abortions of committing witchcraft.[65]

[edit] 17th century to present

In the mid-to-late 19th century, during the fight for women's suffrage in the U.S., many first-wave feminists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed abortion.[66][67] In the newspaper she operated with Susan B. Anthony, The Revolution, an anonymous contributor signing "A" wrote in 1869 about the subject, arguing that instead of merely attempting to pass a law against abortion, the root cause must also be addressed. Simply passing an anti-abortion law would, the writer stated, "be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains. [...] No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh! thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime."[67][68][69][70] Around 1970, during second-wave feminism, abortion and reproductive rights were unifying issues among various women's rights groups in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Britain, Norway, France, Germany, and Italy.[71]

[edit] Legal: History of abortion law

See also: Timeline of reproductive rights legislation, Abortion law, and History of Abortion Law Debate The earliest mentions of abortion in our written texts reflect the interests of class and caste. Fines are listed in the Code of Hammurabi, ca. 1760 BC, for the crime of causing a miscarriage through assault, with the amount varying according to the social rank of the prospective mother.[72][73] The Vedic and smrti laws of India reflect a concern with preserving the male seed of the three upper castes; and the religious courts imposed various penances for the woman or excommunication for a priest who provided an abortion.[74] While abortion is not mentioned in the Greek and Roman laws, an inference can be made from the laws mandating infanticide for children born deformed, suggesting a state interest in the "fitness" of its citizens. [75] In 211 AD, at the intersection of the reigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalla, abortion was outlawed for a period of time to protect the rights of the father, with the punishment being by temporary exile.[56] In the West, ecclesiastical courts dealt with the matter of abortion, which was viewed as a moral issue and dealt with in Ecclesiastical courts, which treated abortion of an "unformed fetus" (prior to quickening) as quasi-homicide, imposing a lesser penance than for full homicide. Starting with Leges Henrici Primi, around 1115, abortion was treated as a misdeamenor prior to "quickening", accruing a penalty of 3 years'

penance, or as a "quasi homicide", with ten years' penance, after quickening.[76] With the notable exception of Henry Bracton,[77] most writers on the subject held to this view, and the penalties for homicide were not applied to the crime of abortion. William Staunford first formulated the born alive rule in accordance with the definition of Murder in English law, which states that the victim be "a reasonable creature in rerum natura, language which dates back to the Leges Henrici Primi. William Blackstone's commentaries are usually consulted for the modern formulation of this rule. The only evidence of the death penalty being mandated for abortion in the ancient laws is found Assyrian Law, in the Code of Assura, c. 1075 BCE;[78] and this is only imposed on a woman who procures an abortion against her husband's wishes.

[edit] 17th century to 19th century

1551- Sir Edward Coke formulates the "born alive rule", calling abortion "a great misprision and no murder". 1765 William Blackstone confirms the "born alive rule" calling abortion "a very heinous misdemeanor".[79] 1803 United Kingdom enacts the Malicious Shooting or Stabbing Act 1803, making abortion after quickening a capital crime, and providing lesser penalties for the felony of abortion before quickening.[80] 1821 Connecticut passes first statute that forbids using poison to induce miscarriages.[81] 1842 The Shogunate in Japan bans induced abortion in Edo. The law does not affect the rest of the country.[25] 1861 The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which outlaws abortion. 1869 Pope Pius IX declared that abortion under any circumstance was gravely immoral (mortal sin), and, that anyone who participated in an abortion in any material way had by virtue of that act excommunicated themselves (latae sententiae) from the Church. In the same year, the Parliament of Canada unifies criminal law in all provinces, banning abortion.[82] 18201900 Primarily through the efforts of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed.[83] 1873 The passage of the Comstock Law in the United States makes it a crime to sell, distribute, or own abortion-related products and services, or to publish information on how to obtain them (see advertisement of abortion services).[84]

[edit] 1920s to 1960s

1920 Lenin legalized all abortions in the Soviet Union.[85] 1932 Poland as first country in Europe outside Soviet Union legalized abortion in cases of rape and threat to maternal health.[86] 1931 Mexico as first country in the world legalized abortion in case of rape.[87] 1935 Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion under limited circumstances.[88] 1935 Nazi Germany amended its eugenics law, to promote abortion for women who have hereditary disorders.[89] The law allowed abortion if a woman gave her permission, and if the fetus was not yet viable,[90][91] and for purposes of so-called racial hygiene.[92][93]

1936 Joseph Stalin reversed most parts of Lenin's legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union to increase population growth. Stalin's reversal was repealed in 1955.[94] 1936 Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS, creates the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion". Himmler, inspired by bureaucrats of the Race and Settlement Main Office, hoped to reverse a decline in the "Aryan" birthrate which he attributed to homosexuality among men and abortions among healthy Aryan women,[95] which were not allowed under the 1935 law, but nevertheless practiced. Reich Secretary Martin Bormann however refused to implement law in this respect, which would revert the 1935 law. 1938 In Britain, Dr. Aleck Bourne aborted the pregnancy of a young girl who had been raped by soldiers. Bourne was acquitted after turning himself into authorities. The legal precedent of allowing abortion in order to avoid mental or physical damage was picked up by the Commonwealth of Nations. 1948 The Eugenic Protection Act in Japan expanded the circumstances in which abortion is allowed.[96] 1959 The American Law Institute drafts a model state abortion law to make legal abortions accessible.[81] 1961 California state legislature introduces an abortion reform law based on the American Law Institute model.[81] 1966 The Ceauescu regime of Romania, in an attempt to boost the country's population banned all abortion. 1966 Mississippi reformed its abortion law and became the first U.S. state to allow abortion in cases of rape. 1967 The Abortion Act 1967 (effective 1968) legalized abortion in the United Kingdom (except in Northern Ireland). In the U.S., Colorado, California, and North Carolina reformed their abortion laws based on the 1962 ALI Model Penal Code (MPC). 19671970 Colorado becomes first state to loosen its abortion laws followed by Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, and Virginia.[81] 1968 President Lyndon Johnsons Committee on The Status of Women releases a report calling for a repeal of all abortion laws.[81] 1969 Senator Robert Packwood of Oregon introduces legislation to legalize abortion in Washington D.C.; no action is taken.[81] 1969 Canada passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, which began to allow abortion for selective reasons. 1969 The ruling in the Victorian case of R v Davidson defined for the first time which abortions are lawful in Australia.[citation needed] 19691973 The Jane Collective operated in Chicago, offering illegal abortions.

[edit] 1970s to present

19701970 Hawaii, New York, Alaska, Washington and Florida repealed their abortion laws and allowed abortion on demand; South Carolina and Virginia reformed their abortion laws based on the Model Penal Code. 1971 The Indian Parliament under the Prime Ministership of a lady Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, passes Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 (more commonly referred to as simply MTP Act 1971). India thus becomes one of the earliest nations to pass this Act. The Act gains importance,

considering India had traditionally been a very conservative country in these matters. Most notably there was no similar Act in several US states around the same time.[97] 1973 The U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, declared all the individual state bans on abortion during the first trimester to be unconstitutional, allowed states to regulate but not proscribe abortion during the second trimester, and allowed states to proscribe abortion during the third trimester unless abortion is in the best interest of the woman's physical or mental health. The Court legalized abortion in all trimesters when a woman's doctor believes the abortion is necessary for her physical or mental health. 19731980 France (1975), West Germany (1976), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), and the Netherlands (1980) legalized abortion in limited circumstances (France : no elective -for nonmedical reasons- abortion allowed after 1012 weeks gestation) 19761977 Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois sponsors the Hyde Amendment, which passes, allows states to prohibit the use of Medicaid funding for abortions.[81] 1979 The People's Republic of China enacted a one-child policy, leaving some women to either undergo an abortion or violate the policy and face economic penalties in some circumstances. 1983 Ireland, by popular referendum, added an amendment to its Constitution recognizing "the right to life of the unborn." Abortion is still illegal in Ireland, except as urgent medical procedures to save a woman's life. 1988 France legalized the "abortion pill" mifepristone (RU-486). In R. v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down regulations of abortion for violating a woman's constitutional "security of person"; Canadian law has not regulated abortion ever since. 1989 Webster v. Reproductive Health Services reinforces the state's right to prevent all publicly funded facilities from providing or assisting with abortion services.[81] 1990 The Abortion Act 1967 in the UK was amended so that abortion is legal only up to 24 weeks, rather than 28, except in unusual cases. 1992 In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the trimester framework in Roe v. Wade, making it legal for states to proscribe abortion after the point of fetal viability, excepting instances that would risk the woman's health. 1993 Poland banned abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, severe congenital disorders, or threat to the life of the pregnant woman. 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is passed by the United States Congress to forbid the use of force or obstruction to prevent someone from providing or receiving reproductive health services.[81] 1996 Republic of South Africa the 'Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996' comes into effect (Repealing the 'Abortion and Sterilization Act 2 of 1975' which only allowed abortions in certain circumstances) lawfully permitting abortions by choice. Act is often challenged in Court. 1998 Republic of South Africa the abortion question is finally answered when the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa in Christian Lawyers Association and Others v Minister of Health and Others held that abortions are legal in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.[98] 1999 The United States Congress passed a ban on intact dilation and extraction, which President Bill Clinton vetoed. 2000 Mifepristone (RU-486) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In Stenberg v. Carhart, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a Nebraska state law that banned intact dilation and extraction. 2003 The U.S. enacted the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and President George W. Bush signed it into law. After the law was challenged in three appeals courts, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it

was constitutional because, unlike the earlier Nebraska state law, it was not vague or overly broad. The court also held that banning the procedure did not constitute an "undue burden," even without a health exception. (see also: Gonzales v. Carhart) 2007 Supreme Court upholds the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.[81] 2007 The Parliament of Portugal voted to legalize abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy. This followed a referendum that, while revealing that a majority of Portuguese voters favored legalization of early-stage abortions, failed due to low voter turnout. Although, at the 2nd referendum, the vote for the legalization won. President Cavaco Silva signed the measure and it went on effect.[99] 2007 The government of Mexico City legalizes abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and offers free abortions. On August 28, 2008, the Mexican Supreme Court upholds the law.[100] 2008 The Australian state of Victoria passes a bill which decriminalizes abortion, making it legally accessible to women in the first 24 weeks of the pregnancy.[101] 2009 In Spain a bill decriminalizes abortion, making it legally accessible to women in the first 14 weeks of the pregnancy.