Using Digital PCR to Detect Fetal Chromosomal Aneuploidy in Maternal Blood (2007) In 2007, Dennis Lo and his colleagues used digital polymerase chain
reaction or PCR to detect trisomy 21 in maternal blood, validating the
method as a means to detect fetal chromosomal aneuploidies, or an
abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell. The team conducted their
research at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and
at the
Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. Because small amounts
of fetal DNA appear in maternal blood during
pregnancy, Lo and his team
City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1983)In the 1983 case
City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive
Health the US Supreme Court ruled that certain requirements of the city
of Akron’s “Regulation on Abortion” ordinance violated women’s rights to
abortions. Despite the legalization of
abortion in the 1973, with the US
Supreme Court case
Roe v. Wade, individual states passed legislation
regulating certain aspects of
abortion. The city of Akron, Ohio, passed
legislation in 1978 that regulated when and where abortions could be
conducted, the consent process leading up to abortions, and the disposal
"CRISPR /Cas9-mediated Gene Editing in Human Tripronuclear Zygotes" (2015), by Junjiu Huang et al.In 2015, Junjiu Huang and his colleagues reported their attempt to
enable CRISPR/cas 9-mediated gene editing in nonviable human zygotes for
the first time at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. Their
article, "CRISPR /Cas9-mediated Gene Editing in Human Tripronuclear
Zygotes," was published in
Protein and Cell. Nonviable zygotes are
sperm-fertilized eggs that cannot develop into a
fetus. Researchers
previously developed the CRISPR/cas 9 gene editing tool, which is a
system that originated from bacteria as a defense mechanism against
viruses. In their article, Huang and his team demonstrate that
Bernadine Healy (1944–2011)During the twentieth century in the United States, Bernadine Patricia
Healy was a cardiologist who served as the first female director of the
National Institutes of Health or NIH and the president of both the
American Heart Association and the American Red Cross. Healy conducted
research on the different manifestations of heart attacks in women
compared to men. At the time, many physicians underdiagnosed and
mistreated coronary heart disease in women. Healy's research illustrated
how coronary heart disease affected women. Healy was also the deputy
science advisor to the United States president Ronald Reagan, and during
her time at the NIH, she founded the Women's Health Initiative. That
initiative was a $625 million research study that aimed to determine how
Pfeffer Cell ApparatusThe
Pfeffer Zelle (
Pfeffer Cell Apparatus), invented by
Wilhelm Pfeffer in 1877, measured the minimum pressure needed to
prevent a pure solvent from passing into a solution across a
semi-permeable membrane, called osmotic pressure. The apparatus
provided Pfeffer with a way to quantitatively measure osmotic
pressure. Pfeffer devised the apparatus in the 1870s at the
University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland, and he described the
Pfeffer Cell Apparatus in his 1877 book
Osmotische
Untersuchungen: Studien Zur Zellmechanik (
Osmotic
Investigations: Studies on Cell Mechanics). Pfeffer relied on
nineteenth century experiments of Moritz Traube in Germany, who
What Every Mother Should Know (1914), by Margaret Sanger What Every Mother Should Know was published in 1914 in New York
City, New York, as a compilation of newspaper articles written by
Margaret Sanger in 1911. The series of articles informed parents about
how to teach their children about reproduction and it appeared in the
newspaper
New York Call. In 1911, the newspaper series was published
as a book, with several subsequent editions appearing later. In
What
Every Mother Should Know, Sanger emphasizes starting education on
reproduction early and honestly answering children’s questions. The book
acted as a resource for parents and urged readers to be less fearful of
approaching the topic with their children.
What Every Mother Should
Know provided information to the public about sex education and
"Pregnancy Complicating Diabetes" (1949), by Priscilla WhiteIn 1949, Priscilla White published "Pregnancy Complicating Diabetes,"
which described the results and implications of a fifteen-year study
about pregnant diabetic women. Published in the
American Journal of
Medicine, the article details possible causes of and ways to prevent
the high fetal mortality rate associated with pregnant diabetic women.
Diabetes is a disease in which the body's ability to produce or respond
to the
hormone insulin is impaired, and it can be particularly dangerous
during pregnancies. In her article, White reported that prematurely
delivering infants for diabetic pregnant women reduces infant and
maternal mortality rates. "Pregnancy Complicating Diabetes" helped make
Charles Knowlton
(1800–1850) Charles Knowlton was a physician and author who advocated
for increased access to information about reproduction in the
nineteenth century in the US. Throughout his early medical
education, Knowlton was particularly interested in anatomy and on
several instances robbed graves for bodies to dissect. In 1832,
Knowlton authored
The Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet that
contained detailed descriptions of the reproductive organs and
information on
conception and methods to control reproduction.
Knowlton circulated his work among his patients until it was
republished in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1832. For publishing a book
on sex and methods of
birth control, Knowlton was convicted of
“The Emergence of Developmental Psychopathology” (1984), by Dante CicchettiIn 1984, Dante Cicchetti published “The Emergence of Developmental
Psychopathology,” an article in which he argued that the previously
amorphous study of developmental psychopathology was emerging as a
unified discipline. According to Cicchetti, developmental
psychopathology describes an interdisciplinary field that studies
abnormalities in psychological function that can arise during human
development. Such studies include research about the effects that
traumatic experiences may have on the development of psychological
disorders and about what behaviors are considered normal or abnormal at
different ages. In the article, Cicchetti reports about the origins of
developmental psychopathology, why it emerged as its own discipline, and
why researchers should study it. In addition to recognizing the field of
Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990)In the 1990 case
Hodgson v. Minnesota, the US Supreme Court in
Washington, D.C., upheld Minnesota statute 144.343, which required
physicians to notify both biological parents of minors seeking abortions
forty-eight hours prior to each procedure. The US Supreme Court
determined that a state could legally require physicians to notify both
parents of minors prior to performing abortions as long as they allowed
for a judicial bypass procedure, in which courts could grant exceptions.
The Supreme Court’s decision in
Hodgson v. Minnesota allowed for the
enforcement of Minnesota statute 144.343, which changed minors’
abilities to access abortions in Minnesota by requiring parental
notification by a physician forty-eight hours prior to each
abortion.
