CARL DJERASSI - Father of Family Planning Pill

FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:

  

   

CARL DJERASSI

(29 October 1923 – 30 January 2015)

(தமிழில் அவர் பெயர் உச்சரிப்பு – கார்ல் ஜொராஸ்ஸி)

(हिंदी में - कार्ल जोरास्सि)

 A Chemist who relieved women from unwanted pregnancy!

 

This is the text of my article dated 4.2.2015 sent to The New Indian Express, on the departure of CARL DJERASSI

  

At the outset, I join the entire right-thinking people of the world in thanking and appreciating TNIE (THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS) for scripting an Editorial in honour of the great departed soul - Carl Djerassi - who addressed a crucial hassle for women, especially of those who are subjected to an unwanted pregnancy - even in the lawful wedlock – and for taking up a vital woman issue by way of a tribute to Carl. An excellent piece indeed!

 

‘Inventor Who Freed Lives from Maternity Ward’ (TNIE Feb 3) has well deservedly paid rich tributes to Carl Djerassi, the father of the Pill (as he was fondly called), who died recently at a ripe age of 91. He was a chemist, novelist, poet and philanthropist and above all, emancipator of women who got immensely benefited, as the title of the Edit itself aptly describes him as the Inventor who freed females from the Maternity Ward (from unwanted/forced pregnancies even within the legal wedlock). He thus not only championed the cause of womanhood traditionally treated by the male-dominated society as children-producing-human-machines. In the process, he has helped in a big way in ushering in the concept of FAMILY PLANNING across the world thereby preventing an unimaginable population explosion which couldn’t be fed in today’s world beset with scarcity of sorts albeit many green revolutions. His anti-pregnancy pill was the first initiative for the 'small family' norm though subsequently a number of options like facilitative aids, devices and procedures were developed to prevent pregnancies, and secure effetive control of population across the globe.

Carl Djerassi - an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American was a self-proclaimed “intellectual polygamist”, novelist, poet, collector and patron of the arts, dandy, entrepreneur and one of the most published chemists in history - all rolled into one.  He was best known, however, as the man who sparked a social revolution by synthesising the first oral contraceptive. In addition to being the “Father of the Pill”, Djerassi’s name was on the patent for the world’s first antihistamines. He was also a pioneer in the field of non-toxic pesticides. In his later years, he turned to writing fictions - novels, plays and essays - which explored the social conundrum, societal quandary, internal moral muddles, and ethical ethos involved in reproductive medicines through scientific endeavours. The womenfolk will never forget this liberator-cum-Good Samaritan.

 

In 1951, Djerassi came up with norethindrone, a synthetic form of the hormone that could survive absorption through the digestive tract. Its possible use, though, as an oral contraceptive didn’t come up until 1960 when it was tested and approved by the Federal Drugs Administration (FDA), U.S.A. In 1959, Djerassi was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University at Palo Alto, near San Francisco.

 

In his novel written in 1997 - Menachem’s and in a play ‘An Immaculate Misconception’, Djerassi explored what he believed would be the logical consequence of the revolution started by the Pill and taken forward by IVF and other advances. In the future, he predicted, young men will deposit sperm in banks for later artificial insemination to help couples wanting a child, and then undergo vasectomies. However repugnant this idea might seem to many people, Djerassi saw it as offering hope for population control in poorer countries, better relationships between the sexes and a reduction in unwanted pregnancies and abortions. With his tanned, handsome features, luxuriant white hair and dandyish liking for multicoloured “power coats”, Djerassi was often described as narcissistic. But many interviewers found themselves charmed by his irrepressible combination of self-deprecating humour and self-promotion.

 

One only wonders whether the liberation and emancipation of women, at least to the extent the world has achieved so far, would have been possible but for the Carl Djerassi’s invention of the contraceptive pills. If today women in large numbers are making their headway in all walks of life including education and employment, it is squarely due to their being away from the Maternity Wards (except for one or two progenies they must have) which they used to visit quite often in the past due to total absence of family planning concept/procedures. It used to be said in the past that with every childbirth, the mother is re-born. Even in the present-day modern world with so many scientific and medical advances enabling childbirth easier than before, the mother mortality is yet to be completely ruled out. Who can pay or compensate for the labour pain that each mother undergoes while  giving birth to a child?

 

The marvel of creation takes place in the womb of the mother whose flesh and blood is taken by the offspring which is nurtured by her for 10 months before a child is born. Every woman takes a rebirth during delivery of a baby - each time! Child birth, though a hard necessity for the man-kind and is a sine qua non for sustaining the human race, subjecting a woman to frequent childbirths will squeeze her of all the energies she needed to play her role as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, etc. Mother is creator and first natural and close friend of a child. Women holdimg half the sky sustain the human-race. She brings up the child under her care, custody, and attention initiating the child to gesture, speak, do things, etc. Can anyone repay the debt of the priceless mother’s feed (mother’s milk gives the best immunity to child from diseases) during infancy?

 

For eons together, womenfolk - from womb to tomb - remained suppressed, subdued and vanquished, with equality denied to them on nonsense and flimsy subterfuges of race, customs, traditions, beliefs, practices and other reasons by dogmatist, diehard and reactionary males, effectively preventing them from progressing - socially, educationally and economically. Women lived fully dependent on their male kith and kin – even for small needs. Discrimination of women was prevalent ubiquitously all across the world transcending barriers. Pregnancy, if unwillingly forced on a woman, is more a hell than a bliss.  

 

Men must share burden of domesticity including cooking, washing of clothes, readying children for school-going, etc. which have been puckishly branded as ‘female domain’. Parents should groom their wards – girl or boy – with equal treatment, making them share joy and responsibility equally. We had prejudicially earmarked certain areas alone for women like teaching, nursing, and hospitality, assuming that their capacity is limited. The myth bubble has been burst what with women of today fluttering their wings to fly towards destinations of their choice making forays and inroads into hitherto unchartered areas like medicine, engineering, aeronautics, driving, policing, piloting, space-walk, army, politics, etc. Today, there is no field untouched by women. They have made headway into all fields. Gender is not an issue. What is important is the ability to produce fruitful results. Girls’ performing better than boys in education is a pointer! A boy is always a boy, but a girl is also a woman! Women build relationships keeping the wheel of blissful family life moving sans manacles. 

Pregnancy along with childbirth should be a preferred, informed, and blissful choice of a female even in her matrimonial life unlike in the past when there was no way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. That's why we had big families in the past.

Remaining alive to the different but crucial roles played by a woman in the society, men must come forward to give females their due share of respect, honour and dignity, if not more. Let no fetters confine women to particular areas as conveniently selected by the chauvinist males, and let them not be yoked any more in any way. Let men not forget that all women are entitled to all sorts of life bliss as males. It needs no over-emphasize  that women hold half the sky.

 

Carl, the saviour of women, rightly deserves a fond farewell. Needless to say, his memories will be cherished by future generations in general and women in particular. Goodbye Carl!

 

Thank you,

 

R.SAMPTH

4/2/2015