Getting an abortion in Sweden in 1962 was a matter of finding the right medical excuse. With the approval of two doctors, a Swedish woman could obtain an abortion on the basis of “expected weakness”—where having a baby would allegedly threaten her future physical or mental well-being.That summer, a married woman decided she couldn’t handle any more children. After gestating a baby girl for about four months, she underwent an abortion at a Swedish hospital. Just 8 inches long, the girl had already developed ears, fingers, toes, and a miniature set of lungs she would never use.
Millions of other people would use those lungs instead.
After the abortion, a technician in Stockholm dissected the baby, removed the lungs, and shipped them, on ice, to the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia. There, scientist Leonard Hayflick had spent months trying to develop a human cell line ...
Dr. Alan Cairns | 6/22/2009
