STOCK BREEDING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 July 1943, Page 5

STOCK BREEDING

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION POSSIBLE HUMAN PROBLEMS. DISCUSSED IN HOUSE OF LORDS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. July 28. Lord Brabazon, drawing attention in !the House of Lords to recent strides in physiology, especially regarding artificial insemination and its consequences on livestock and also possibilities in relation to the human race, said a Russian, Professor Ivanoff, had experimented with inseminating a cow from a bull that had been dead for more than a week. Such developments, he said, must concern Britain, as a great exporter of livestock. Regarding women, he had learned that there were 20.000 applications in the United States for artificial insemination, particularly among childless wives. This raised a question of law and ethics. A child thus produced was thought illegitimate and only a doctor knew if it were illegitimate. “The church will have to consider whether, in having children in this way. women are guilty of a sin or not," said Lord Brabazon. “Is the State to deprive itself of children born in this way? Can there be insemination from a male after he is dead?"

Lord Marley said it was time that the term “illegitimate child" was abolished and a gross injustice to an innocent child removed.

The Bishop of Chichester declared that the relationships between a mother and child, if the mother had been artificially inseminated, might be disastrous to family life.

The Duke of Norfolk, replying in the debate, said that he did not propose to refer to the human side of the question, which was being closely watched by the Minister of Health, who. if necessary, would consult the Lord Chancellor on the legal problems. The artificial insemination of animals was nothing new. The Arabs had started it many hundreds of years ago. Modern methods provided a means of improving livestock to an extent hitherto impossible. Two large trial stations had been established, at Cambridge and Reading. Regulations regarding cattle were in an advanced stage of preparation. It was hoped to lay them before Parliament soon.