Treatments
In Vitro Fertilization
Also Known As IVF
Fertility Treatment
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
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. Cross-Tradition Connections
Discovered By
Historians and Edwards himself argue Purdy is a genuine co-discoverer, not a subordinate; see this entity's own Dissent 727.
Sources
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
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.