Sheldon Jerome Segal (March 15, 1926 – October 17, 2009) was an American embryologist and biochemist who spent his entire career working on contraception, and made major innovations in the field of long-lasting alternatives, with Chilean physician Horacio Croxatto, including in the creation of Norplant, the first major development advance in birth control since the birth control pill.
When the war ended with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, obviating the need for naval landings, he was sent to participate in nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll.
[1] His best-known work was the creation of Norplant, introduced in 1991 as a contraceptive device that could be inserted under the skin, with its silicone rods releasing progestin for as long as five years.
[1] After cases occurred where judges ordered the implant of the device to prevent pregnancy and in the wake of editorials advocating its use "as a way of reducing the welfare burden resulting from high fertility among the underclass", Segal wrote a strongly worded letter to The New York Times in January 1991, indicating that he was "totally and unalterably opposed to the use of Norplant for any coercive or involuntary purpose" and would lead the opposition to use "Norplant for coercive sterilization or birth control".
[5] In 2003, the intrauterine device Mirena, developed under his leadership of the Center for Biomedical Research, which uses a progestin to thicken cervical mucus to prevent pregnancy was introduced by Berlex Laboratories.