Embryo Project Encyclopedia Articles

Birth Control or the Limitation of Offspring was written by American eugenics and birth control advocate William J. Robinson. First published in 1916, the final edition (forty-eighth) was published in 1936, the same year that Robinson died. As a medical doctor and author, Robinson used his influence to promote propaganda for "fewer and better babies," by focusing on contraception. Even Margaret Sanger, another prominent eugenics and birth control advocate, took great interest in this book. Robinson had three goals in mind when writing Birth Control. First, he advocated for limiting the number of children to parental financial means through prevention of conception. Second, he addressed the various forms of preventing conception, and suggested the best and most harmless way of doing such. Last, Robinson wanted information about birth control to be readily available to anyone who sought it.

Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, marked his contribution to the abortion debate by removing the distinction between an "animated" and "unanimated" fetus from Catholic doctrine, and established the edict that a human should be protected starting from the moment of conception onward. This proclamation made abortion at any time of gestation punishable by excommunication. Pope Pius IX's decision became Canon Law of the Catholic Church.

Pope Gregory XIV, born Nicolo Sfondrati, reversed the bull of Pope Sixtus V, Effraenatum, under which an abortion at any time of gestation can be punished by excommunication. He supported the Aristotelian distinction between an "animated" and "unanimated" fetus, making abortion of an unanimated fetus punishable by lesser means. This decision contributed to the historical debates within the Roman Catholic Church on when a fetus has a soul, and when abortion was punishable by excommunication.

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells are hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) that are recovered from the blood of the umbilical cord and placenta after birth. Umbilical cord blood is rich in cells that express the CD34 molecule, a surface protein that identifies cells as stem cells. Prior to the discovery of UCB stem cells, it was standard procedure to discard the umbilical cord and placenta; now much effort is devoted to raising public awareness and to encouraging people to store or donate cord blood. The importance of these cells lies in potential clinical treatments of blood-borne diseases, as well as the possibility of restoring cells of other lineages, such as cardiac and neural cells. These possible uses have given rise to cord blood stem cell banking, both private and public, where cells can be frozen and stored for later use.

Cord blood banks are institutions designed to store umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells. UCB, a source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), has garnered attention from scientific and medical communities since its first successful use in a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) in 1988. The umbilical cord is the lifeline by which the growing fetus is nourished by the mother. Once regarded as medical waste, the umbilical cord has become a source of lifesaving treatment. The extraction of HSCs from umbilical cord is non-invasive since the umbilical cord is delivered immediately after the baby exits the womb. The most common application of umbilical cord blood derived stem cells is in unrelated (between donor and host) HSCT. Since these cells are not often needed at the time of delivery, cord blood banks have been established to preserve these cells for future use. In addition to harvesting a supply of cells for treatment, UCB stem cells can be used in research.