July 25th, 1978 was a historic day, and one that would change the lives of millions of infertile couples the world over. For John and Lesley Brown, it was one of the happiest days of their lives. It was the day that their first daughter, Louise Joy Brown, was born.
John and Lesley had been trying to conceive unsuccessfully for nine years because of Lesley’s blocked fallopian tubes. That all changed nine months earlier when Lesley Brown underwent the first successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure in history.
Drs. Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards had been looking for a solution to help couples with blocked fallopian tubes to conceive a baby since 1966. Up until Louise, they had been successful in fertilizing an egg outside of a woman’s body, but had been unable to implant the resulting embryo with any success. By 1977, none of the pregnancies resulting from this new procedure had lasted more than a few weeks.
Before Louise, the doctors had waited 4 to 5 days before replacing the fertilized embryo into the mother’s body. With Louise, they decided to wait only 2 and a half days. The pregnancy continued without incident until Louise was delivered by Caesarian section nine months later, a healthy, normal baby. Since then it is estimated that over 1,000,000 babies have been conceived through IVF.
Predictably, the birth sparked a flurry of ethical debates on the morality of the practice.
Fueled by B-grade science fiction films, people worried about soulless clones and taking the place of God. A quote from an article on the birth from the Milwaukee Journal of Aug 3, 1978, states: “Religious leaders are asking, is man treading recklessly into the realm of God’s works – or happily fulfilling a divine commandment?”
Much like the first heart and kidney transplants, the birth of Louise Brown forced the world to face issues that it had not considered before outside of the realm of science fiction. Today, IVF is considered a normal, common place and even uninteresting practice, as the world has answered these questions and moved on to other issues.
Contrast that with Louise herself, who has been faced with constant press coverage her entire life. She is proud to have been the first “test-tube baby”, but is uncomfortable with all the attention.
Recently, Louise gave birth to a child of her own. The baby, a boy, was conceived naturally and was born just before Christmas of 2006. Louise’s sister, Natalie, also conceived by IVF, was the first “test-tube baby” to have a child of her own in 1999.
Louise Brown remains a symbol of hope for millions of infertile couples the world over, and an example of what man can achieve when put to the test.
