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Reuters / Lucy Nicholson
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In some 35 years people will have
sex just for fun, without worrying about contraception. Babies will be
conceived from frozen eggs and sperm, the father of the birth control pill
says. He predicts people with no fertility problems will turn to IVF.
"Women in their twenties
will first choose this approach [in vitro fertilization, IVF] as insurance,
providing them with freedom in the light of professional decisions, or the
absence of the right partner, or the inexorably ticking of the biological clock,"
Austrian-American chemistry professor Carl Djerassi said in an interview with
the Daily Telegraph.
"For them the separation
between sex and reproduction will be 100 percent," said 91-year-old
Djerassi, who is known as the "father of the Pill".
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Human genetic
material (Reuters / Michael Dalder)
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The emeritus professor of chemistry
at Stanford University played a crucial role in the development of birth
control medication in 1951. A century after its invention, the contraceptive,
which tricks the body into thinking it's pregnant to avoid actual conception,
will no longer be necessary, the professor claims.
When asked about a male
contraceptive pill, the researcher said it was "unlikely," as
trials would need decades to prove the method has no unwanted effects on sperm
quality.
The pill will become outdated, as
men and women will instead opt to freeze their reproduction cells at a young
age before being sterilized. Advances in fertility treatment will make it safer
for healthy parents with no fertility problems to consider IVF.
"I predict that many of
these women will in fact decide to be fertilized by IVF methods because of the
advances in genetic screening. And once that happens, then IVF will start to
become a normal non-coital method of having children," Djerassi told
the Daily Telegraph, adding that the new attitude will end abortions, and
reduce cases of non-planned pregnancy.
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RIA Novosti /
Igor Zarembo
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Children born through IVF may be
healthier, as they will be conceived with "younger" eggs and
sperm, and when they themselves become parents they will be safer in the
knowledge that having babies can be delayed without repercussions.
If the professor's predictions are
true, people will concentrate more on building successful careers and having
sex for fun, knowing they can use the IVF method to become parents any time
they want.
Currently, the chances of women becoming
pregnant after 45 are considered slim, even negligible if using the woman's own
eggs. According to disease control and prevention centers, almost half of women
over 40 have fertility problems. They have about a two-percent chance of
getting pregnant in their mid-forties, compared to a 75-percent possibility for
a woman 10 years younger.
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