William Liley
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Sir Albert William Liley (1929-1983), known as Sir William, was a New Zealand surgeon, who worked primarily on techniques to improve the health of fetuses in utero.
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[edit] Education and career
Liley graduated from Otago Medical School at the University of Otago in Dunedin, in 1954. He was awarded fellowships with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and became a member of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of the Sciences.
Liley was one of the first doctors to work in the field of fetal surgery. He became known for his technique for intrauterine blood transfusions for Rh-affected fetuses. Liley became one of the founders of the New Zealand Society for Protection of the Unborn Child or SPUC, now Voice for Life. Liley was also a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand, his work became important to the New Zealand pro-life movement.
In a 1977 interview with the "World Life League", an offshoot of the pro-life US American Life League in 1977, Liley revealed that much of his assertions about fetal sentience and awareness were based on retrospective inferences, given that much of his late-term fetal surgery was performed well after what would become the maximum point for most abortions in New Zealand. His interventions were not beyond the maximum point for abortions in the United States of America.
His involvement in the abortion debate may have obscured one of his key contribution to medicine. In developing and performing intrauterine transfusions to save fetuses that were too young to survive extrauterine life, Sir William became the first medical practitioner to treat the fetus as a patient in his or her own right. Prior to Sir William's development of the intrauterine transfusion, the pregnant uterus was regarded as inviolate. Many developments in prenatal treatment have ensued since Sir William performed the first successful intrauterine transfusion in 1963.
[edit] Monica Casper
Monica Casper, in her work on his pioneering foetal surgical practice, wrongly alleges that Sir William was a devout Presbyterian. Casper is entirely incorrect, because his surviving widow and children can confirm that Sir William was an atheist throughout his adult life, and that he always insisted that his opposition to abortion was on scientific rather than religious grounds.
Monica Casper interviewed Dr. Margaret, Lady Liley, while researching her book, and sent her an advance draft, which Lady Liley describes as "appalling". Lady Liley says that she was so disgusted by Casper's work that she did not even bother to respond to Casper after reading the draft. The work should therefore not be regarded as having any authority as far as it concerns Sir William.
As a distinguished person who was against abortion, Sir William had to endure vilification by the pro-abortion lobby, which included personal harassment and even occasional death threats. He bore these responses with tremendous patience and dignity, because he was a man of outstanding integrity.
[edit] Suicide
His suicide marked a sad end to an illustrious career. Posthumously, there are three references to his professional life and its implications for the New Zealand abortion debate. These include a reference in the Yearbook of the Royal Society of New Zealand (1997) and a tribute from an Australian pro-life group, Foundation Genesis. His American Life League interview is recorded in a booklet entitled The Tiniest Humans (1977). It was conducted by Robert Sassone, and included additional comments from French geneticist and pro-lifer Jerome Lejeune, and is available on that organisation's website.
In 1996, Monica Casper wrote a volume on the politics of fetal surgery, and made extensive references to Sir William's pioneering professional role in intrauterine blood transfusions for Rh-affected fetuses at National Women's Hospital, where he worked. Inexplicably, Ms. Casper refers to Sir William in the book as "Dr. William Liley" recognizing neither his Professorship or his Knighthood (KCMG). His correct title was, and is, Professor Sir William Liley. Furthermore Dr. Margaret, Lady Liley, who is a physician in her own right, who discussed Sir William's work with him constantly during his life and who is the most authoritative living authority on the subject of Sir William, has repudiated Monica Casper's work as "appalling".
Sir William also had a wife and family which he loved dearly. He first met his wife, Dr. Margaret, Lady Liley when they were at medical school together. Throughout his professional life she took a keen interest in his work and indeed inspired some of his avenues of inquiry into the prenatal environment on the basis of her observations during her own five pregnancies.
[edit] Liley Medal
There is now in place a Liley Medal as a memoir for him, presented annually to a scientist.
[edit] Bibliography
- "Sir Albert William Liley" in Yearbook of the Royal Society of New Zealand: 1997:2:34-41.
- Sir William Liley: A Tribute to the Father of Fetology: Strathfield, New South Wales: Foundation Genesis: 1984: ISBN 0-9591115-0-6
- Robert Sassone, Jerome Lejeune and William Liley: The Tiniest Humans: Strafford, Virginia: American Life League: 1977: [1]
- Monica Casper: Treating the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery: New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press: 1998: ISBN 0-8135-2516-0. Not a reliable reference; see above.
- Monica Casper: Fetal Transfusion at National Women's Hospital: Auckland: National Women's Hospital: 1996. Not a reliable reference; see above.
