Genealogy of a Controversy: Development of an Anti-Fertility Vaccine

Abstract

The history of the development of a new scientific or medical technology is a story of science in the making. In this paper we attempt to trace the development of the anti-hCG vaccine over the past 20 years, using controversy as a methodological entry point into the history. The anti-hCG vaccine is one of the range of immunological contraceptives that is being researched and developed in laboratories around the world. There are two teams which have been working on this research since the early 1970s - Talwar and his team at the NII in India, and Stevens at the University of Ohio. [1] Both the vaccines have gone in for phase I trials and Talwar's vaccine has also completed phase II clinical trials.