A fertility treatment in which an egg is fertilized by sperm outside the body and the resulting embryo is transferred to the uterus. Developed by physiologist Robert Edwards, gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy, the technique produced its first successful birth, Louise Brown, in July 1978. Edwards received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the work; Steptoe and Purdy, both deceased by the time of the award, were ineligible under the Nobel Foundation's rule against posthumous prizes, a decision many in the field regard as an incomplete accounting of the discovery's true three-person authorship.
Facts
Origin YearDated to July 1978, the birth of Louise Brown, the first child born following IVF treatment; the underlying technique had been in development by Robert Edwards, Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy since the late 1960s. Connections
Discovered By
Historians and Edwards himself argue Purdy is a genuine co-discoverer, not a subordinate; see this entity's own Dissent 727.
Source Jean Purdy (Wikipedia)
Source Patrick Steptoe (Wikipedia)
Source Robert Edwards (Wikipedia)
Long-Form Articles
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_fertilisation, lead sectionQuote, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_fertilisation, lead section
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation in which an egg is combined with sperm in vitro.
2. In Vitro Fertilisation (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWikipedia: In vitro fertilisation, lead sectionQuote, Wikipedia: In vitro fertilisation, lead section
In July 1978, Louise Brown was the first child successfully born after her mother received IVF treatment.
In Vitro Fertilisation (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead sectionQuote, Lead section
In July 1978, Louise Brown was the first child successfully born after her mother received IVF treatment.
Wikidata: In Vitro Fertilization
Wikidata Q200117, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Robert Edwards (Wikipedia)
Patrick Steptoe (Wikipedia)
Jean Purdy (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
Robert Edwards himself, and later historians of embryology, argued that Jean Purdy, the embryologist who worked alongside Edwards and Patrick Steptoe throughout the IVF program, deserved recognition as a co-discoverer rather than a subordinate assistant. A 1980 commemorative plaque honoring the development of IVF in Oldham originally excluded Purdy's name; Edwards protested the omission in a 1981 letter of complaint to the Oldham NHS Trust and was rejected. In his 1989 autobiography, and again at a 1998 lecture, Edwards insisted the team had been a threesome, not a pair. A corrected blue plaque naming all three pioneers was finally unveiled in 2015, by Patrick Steptoe's son.
A dissenting reading, from Jean Purdy's family and historians of embryologyJean Purdy (Wikipedia), Wikipedia
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