Landrum Shettles


Landrum Brewer Shettles was an American biologist and a pioneer in the field of vitro fertilization.

Early life and education

He was born on November 21, 1909 in Pontotoc, Mississippi. He graduated from Mississippi College in 1933. He was awarded a Ph.D. in biology and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He served in the United States Army Medical Corps from 1944 to 1946.

Career

In 1951, he reproduced the procedure developed by John Rock and Miriam Menkin to artificially fertilize eggs. In 1954, he received the annual Markle Prize from Columbia University.
Shettles developed a method to maximize the probability of having a baby of the sex of the parents' choice. Using his "Shettles Method," couples who wanted to have a male baby should time intercourse as close as possible to ovulation to allow the faster Y-bearing sperm to reach the egg first. Couples desiring a female should time intercourse to take place about three days prior to ovulation, when the pH of the vagina is more acidic and thus more hostile to the faster but less bulky Y-bearing sperm, and therefore favoring the bulkier X-bearing sperm on a small level.
In 1973, he was involved with an IVF controversy, the Del-Zio case, at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. After he resigned from the hospital, he moved to Vermont where he worked on cloning at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vermont. He then moved to Las Vegas to resume work on cloning.

Career

He retired from work at the Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2000 and moved to Florida. He died on February 6, 2003 in St. Petersburg.

Works