Reproductive medicine in the second half of the 20th century

This communication reviews the most important achievements of human reproductive medicine during the last 50 years. The progress in this discipline has been so profound and unexpected that it has raised ethical questions of a fundamental character. Over the last 50 years of this century, new insight into reproductive processes enabled the following development: hormonal contraception, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and its agonistic and antagonistic analogues, prostaglandins: induction of labor and conquering dysmenorrhea, selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERM), assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and recombinant DNA technology and cloning. Currently, safe and effective contraceptive methods are available. Control of the world population growth is not a medical issue anymore: it is a political and social problem. Governments, and national and ideological leaders must share the responsibility for creating a social and economic milieu that facilitates women's education, provides access to birth control methods, and motivates the population to limit its own growth. At the same time, society must foster traditional family and moral values Vis a Vis sex. (Fig. 6, Ref. 22.)