By Professor Gerald Lalor, Contributor
EVER SINCE the English economist, Thomas Malthus, published an essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, stating that population tends to increase faster than the supply of food available for its needs, there has been a lot of concern that population growth would outpace the carrying capacity of Earth. Therefore, the announcement in October 1951, by Carl Djerassi and Luis Miramontes, of the first synthetic oral contraceptive was of prime interest.
By the early 1960s, after years of clinical testing, an oral contraceptive was approved for sale in the US and the Pill had arrived. These birth control pills contain synthetic hormones that mimic the way natural oestrogen and progestin work in a women's body. This prevents the release of eggs because it appears that she is already pregnant. The Pill is 94 per cent effective overall in preventing pregnancy and quickly became widely used.
It helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s and '70s and, by separating sex from procreation, allowed many more women to enter the modern workplace. Though not perfect, it is the generally preferred form of contraception in many countries and has had much influence on national political agendas. The consequent changes have been profound.
The creator of the Pill, Carl Djerassi, is a remarkable person and his achievements in chemistry are profound. These include major advances in the chemistry of steroids; the structure of alkaloids; antibiotics and terpenoids; organic synthesis; optical rotatory dispersion; organic mass spectrometry; and magnetic circular dichroism of organic compounds.
Applications of his work have led to oral contraceptives, antihistamines, and anti-inflammatory agents, all outstanding achievements. He was born in Vienna in 1923, and fled from the Nazis to the US in 1938. Early in his career he was a research chemist with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Ciba, and was part of the team credited with the discovery of the antihistamine Pyribenzamine. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin and then went to work at a little known Syntex lab in Mexico City. There, in 1951, he directed the synthesis of the first oral contraceptive and is widely known as the "father of the birth-control pill."
The resulting patent (Patent No. 2,744,122) made a fortune for Djerassi and Syntex. He became a professor in the powerful Chemistry Department at Stanford University in 1959, and remains a legend there due to his personality and achievements. He has published more than 1,200 scientific papers and numerous books, monographs, novels, poems and plays. He has not won a Nobel prize but his numerous awards and honours include the U.S. National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology, the first Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and the Priestly Medal of the American Chemical Society. His work is a major example of the way in which chemistry can interact with life and the economy.
Indeed, the Pill is yet another of those remarkable discoveries in chemistry that truly "changed the world" and it has supported impacts that are yet to be understood.
During the 20th century the human population increased nearly four fold to six billion and the UN predictions were for 10 billion by the end of the present century. In 1950, on average a woman had about five children, now it is about 2.7; and in many countries for example, Greece, Italy, Spain, it is about 1.2; in Sweden, Britain, Finland Norway, the number is between 1.6 and 1.8. These averages are well below the 2.1 considered necessary to maintain a population.
And in country after country: Brazil, China, India, Iran, soon perhaps the more developed of the African continent, regardless of wealth, religion or politics the fertility rate has been declining as more women have the means to control contraception, and are determined to be better educated and to perform as the equals (at least) of men in the job market and the professions. The short-term global effects of this will differ from country but, in general, the developing countries should begin to have a respite from many aspects of capital and recurrent expenditures.
The developed countries may have problems caring for an ageing population and a shortage of workers. This last one can of course be met, as it has always been by migrants, but changes in social structures, policies and customs seem inevitable.
Professor Gerald Lalor, director-general, International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS).
