Professor David Michael Serr, M.B., Ch.B.

Obituary from Ha'aretz:

He was born into a poor family in Leeds, England, where he completed his medical studies. As a charismatic leader of the Bnei Akiva youth movement in northern England, he influenced many of his younger charges to immigrate to Israel with him.

Serr served in the IDF Medical Corps and after a brief stint at Sha'are Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem, he moved to Hadassah Hospital, where he eventually became head of the Obstetrics-Gynecology Department.

Through research conducted in collaboration with Professor Leo Sachs and Dr. Matilda Denon of the Weizmann Institute, he made a scientific breakthrough in developing a method of ascertaining the sex of the fetus during pregnancy by drawing and analyzing the amniotic fluid. Serr first tested the method on a Bedouin woman in Beer Sheva, where Hadassah physicians periodically provided medical services in the 1950s.

Serr was initially criticized for ostensibly "using the simple women of the Negev as guinea pigs" but when the trial was termed a success, the criticism ended and the accomplishment led to a revolutionary shift in prevailing medical attitudes. No longer did physicians feel obliged to leave the fetus alone and undisturbed in its mother's womb and carry out any necessary tests only on the mother, and exclusively by external means. It was the dawning of a new era in medical care for the fetus. Aside from ascertaining its gender, medical practitioners could also discover genetic disorders in the fetus. Among his colleagues, Professor Serr earned the sobriquet of "father of amniocentesis."

When Tel Hashomer Hospital opened its maternity ward, professor Serr was asked to head its university department, and in 1969 he was appointed as the overall director. At the same time, he joined the faculty of Tel Aviv University and continued to devote his efforts to researching the subject closest to his heart: the fetus.

Together with researchers from the Weizmann Institute and Tel Aviv University, he developed a device for diagnosing the fetus' maturity at each stage of its development. The device was manufactured by Elscint, and Professor Serr demonstrated its use all over the world. Working with scientists from the Weizmann Institute, he also developed an original Israeli device for monitoring the fetal heart rate.

Serr also called for regulating the intensity of ultra-sound monitors used during pregnancy, as a result of which the International Health Organization set up a special committee to review the issue, of which Professor Serr was a member.

He laid down the conceptual, research and clinical foundations for the test-tube fertilization program, and one of his proteges, professor Shlomo Mashiach, led the unit. It came to be regarded as one of the most advanced in-vitro programs in the world. Serr was chairman of the Association of OB/GYN Physicians in Israel.

As a member of the ethics committee of the Israel Medical Association, he carried out an intensive study of the ethical issues involved in test-tube fertilization, artificial insemination and surrogate motherhood. In 1978, he and a colleague, professor Yosef Shenkar, attended an international conference in Cairo, and the two men became the first Israeli scientists to take part in a professional conference in an Arab state.