New York Times Profiles In Vitro Fertilization Pioneer Jones

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 25 Mar 2010 - 5:00 PDT


The New York Times on Tuesday profiled surgeon Howard Jones, who, together with his wife, Georgeanna Seegar Jones, collaborated on the first U.S. in vitro fertilization procedure that led to the birth of an infant. Now 99 years old, Jones first began reproductive science work at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, where he performed sex change operations and worked with British scientist Robert Edwards to produce the first fertilized human oocyte in 1965.

Jones opened an IVF clinic in 1979. According to the Times, although Jones "had grown accustomed to public rancor over his research and operations," he felt that "nothing was as fierce as the American opposition to his in vitro fertilization clinic." Jones' initial effort to gain approval for the clinic failed because of resistance from antiabortion-rights advocates who opposed destroying unused embryos. After the clinic opened, protesters often blocked patients from entering, the Times reports.

The Times notes that Jones in 1984 identified a need for an ethics panel on reproductive technology, which today is known as the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. He also has "bemoaned the rise of commercial competition among doctors in the field," according to the Times.

Jones said that fertility research today should focus on ways to indentify a single embryo that is likely to result in pregnancy if implanted, thus eliminating the need to transfer several embryos at once. Such a discovery would reduce costs, decrease the number of multiple births and significantly increase IVF success rates, which currently are about 30%, only slightly higher than Jones' team's success rate of 28% in the 1980s, the Times reports (Epstein, New York Times, 3/23).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2010 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations