20
doc • Summer 2015
Kentucky
Making History
Robert
Edwards
and the
first ‘test
tube baby’
By Frank Kourt, Staff Writer
Today in vitro fertilization, the
fertilizing of eggs outside the body
in a petri dish, is often a viable
option for infertile couples who
are unable to conceive a child, but
it didn’t become a reality until July 25, 1978 when
Louise Brown, the first “test tube baby” was born,
due, in large part, to the determination of fertility
researcher Robert Edwards.
Edwards, a British physiologist, was born in 1925
in Batley, Yorkshire, England. He began his studies
in agriculture at the University College of North
Wales (UCNW), after his discharge from the
British Army in 1949. He soon became interested
in animal reproduction and transferred to the college’s zoology department. He earned a Bachelor
of Science degree, then a Doctor of Science
degree from UCNW, followed by a Ph.D. from
the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Animal
Genetics.
During his research career, as early as
the 1950s, Edwards became
fascinated with the
concept of fertilizing
human eggs in the laboratory as a potential
treatment for human
infertility.
Through painstaking
and lengthy studies,
Edwards came to
understand how
human eggs could
be fertilized outside the body, and developed a
cultural medium in which such fertilization could
take place,
In 1968, Edwards contacted Dr. Patrick Steptoe, a
British gynecologist who was one of the pioneers
of laparoscopy, a surgical technique that could
enable the eggs to be removed from the ovaries,
and a collaboration was born.
While Edwards managed to fertilize a human egg
in 1969, the success was very limited, in that the
egg failed to develop beyond a single cell division.
The researchers continued their work over the
next decade, refining their techniques in an effort
to fertilize viable eggs and implant them in the
womb. By using the laparoscopic technique,
Edwards and Steptoe were able to extract eggs
that had matured in the ovaries, providing a better
chance for successful in vitro fertilization.
Edwards’ and Steptoe’s work continued for ten
years, during which they were criticized on a
number of fronts, from arguments that in vitro
fertilization was “unnatural” and was, essentially
“playing God”, to assertions that the process would
create infants that might be deformed and afflicted
with terminal illnesses as the result of unsuccessful
experimentation.
Nevertheless, the two researchers pressed on.
Their perseverance paid off when they were
approached by Leslie and John Brown, a couple
who had been trying to have a child for nine years.
The in vitro fertilization was completed, the fertilized egg was implanted in Leslie Brown’s body
and a healthy girl, Louise Brown, was delivered by
c-section on July 25, 1978 after a full-term pregnancy.
Edwards and Steptoe founded Bourn Hall Clinic
in Cambridge, England in 1980, and trained gynecologists and cell biologists from around the world
in the new technique.
Edwards served as scientific director of Bourn Hall
Clinic from 1988 to 1991, and as head of research
until his retirement, while Steptoe served as medical director until his death in 1988.
Edwards won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his
in vitro fertilization work in 2010. Steptoe would
presumably have shared the prize, but Nobels are
not awarded posthumously.
Edwards died April 10 of this year at the age of 87
at his home near Cambridge, England.
Since the successful birth of Louise
Brown in 1978, millions of couples
throughout the world have benefited from the work of Robert
Edwards and his fellow researcher,
Patrick Steptoe.