Étienne-Émile Baulieu

French scientist, physician and medical researcher who impacted his time in history by developing the abortion pill RU-486 in addition to an anti-aging pill from a human hormone, DeHydroEpiAndrosterone, more commonly known as DHEA. Author of "The Abortion Pill," 1990, he was awarded a Commander of the French Legion of Honour and a Chevalier of the French National Order of Merit, Baulieu was a biochemist who described himself as "a medical doctor who practices science."

Baulieu was the oldest of three children born to Jewish physician Leon Blum, a pioneer in independent medical research in the treatment of diabetes who became one of the first doctors to conduct clinical trials in insulin. His mother, Therese Lion, was a conservatory-trained classical pianist who held advanced degrees in English and law. Prior to her marriage to Blum, Lion was an activist in the fight for women's suffrage in England.

Baulieu spent his early years in Strasbourg until after his father's untimely death in 1930 when mother Therese moved with her four-year-old son and two daughters to Paris. After the Germans invaded France in World War II, the Blum family fled Paris to live in Grenoble, an area which was not occupied by the Germans, where Baulieu resumed his studies at the Lycee Champollion. He became active in a Communist-controlled group and when the Gestapo began to close in, the family moved again to Annency in Haute-Savoie. In 1942, an attempt by Baulieu to deflect German attention from himself and his family and to hide the fact that his father was Jewish, Baulieu acquired false identification papers on which his surname appeared as Baulieu, a name he chose himself and the name he has used ever since.

Returning to Paris when the war ended in 1945, Baulieu formally began his study of medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, October 1944, registering under his pseudonym. As Strasbourg was still occupied, he could not use his true name.