Nobel for father of test tube baby

Oct. 4: British test tube baby pioneer, Prof. Robert G. Edwards, was on Monday awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. His pioneering work led to the birth of the world's first test-tube baby Louise Brown in Britain in 1978. Eighty-five-year-old Professor Edwards, pensioner fellow at Churchill College and emeritus professor of human reproduction at the Cambridge University, has been honoured with the Nobel Prize "for the development of in vitro fertilisation".

Prof. Edwards had to battle societal and establishment resistance to his development of the in vitro fertilisation procedure, which has so far led to the birth of around four million people, the Nobel Prize committee said.

Prof. Edwards began work on fertilisation in 1955, and began his partnership with Dr Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologist surgeon, in 1968. Prof. Edwards and Steptoe developed IVF technology in which egg cells are fertilised outside the body and implanted in the womb. They founded the world's first IVF clinic at Bourn Hall in Cambridge in 1980.

However, Steptoe died in 1988 and has not been included in the award, which is not given posthumously.

Father of five daughters, Prof. Edwards who has 11 grandchildren, in a statement issued on Monday said he feels incredibly lucky to have children "because there is nothing more important in life than having children". "Nothing is more special than a child. Steptoe and I were deeply affected by the desperation felt by couples who so wanted to have children. We had a lot of critics but we fought like hell for our patients. But we had enough supporters - not many - but just enough for us to carry on our work," he added.

Submitted by : Arshad KAdli, Bhatkallys Correspondent