FIRST “TEST-TUBE” BABY BORN, 1978 term paper

Louise Joy Brown, the first “test-tube” baby, was born on 25 July 1978 at Oldham Hospital in Oldham, England. At the time she was the first product of a radically new reproductive technique, in vitro fertilization (ivf), pioneered by Patrick C. Steptoe (1913–1988), the senior obstetrician and gynecologist at Oldham Hospital, and Robert Edwards (1925–), a physiologist from Cambridge.

Edwards had been working independently on methods by which a human ovum (egg) might be fertilized outside the womb. After succeeding in doing this for the first time in 1968, he formed a partnership with Dr. Steptoe. Steptoe contributed, among other things, his experience with the laparoscope, a fiber-optic device that he had been using for minimally invasive abdominal surgery. He realized that he could use the laparoscope to siphon eggs from an infertile woman.

Edwards and Steptoe succeeded in fertilizing and implanting eggs in women who then became pregnant. All of the first pregnancies ended in miscarriages before ten weeks. Finally, the two decided to implant the embryo (technically, a blastocyst at this point) when it reached the eight-cell stage instead of waiting for one hundred cell divisions to occur.

The ivf protocol quickly became a source of moral, ethical, and religious controversy. The Catholic Church became a major opponent. In 1987 it issued a doctrinal statement opposing ivf for three reasons: (1) it opposed the destruction of human embryos not used for implantation; (2) it opposed ivf by a sperm donor who was not the husband of the woman attempting to become pregnant; and (3) it saw ivf as severing the essential connection between married sex and procreation, which the Church views as sacred. Many other ethical, moral, and legal questions have been raised since the first test-tube baby was born. At first, the major problem concerned the use of surrogate mothers, women willing to carry a fertilized egg to term for a couple. Some surrogate mothers found it difficult to turn over the baby they gave birth to. Careful screening and counseling of potential surrogate mothers have helped with this problem. More recently, some problems have resulted from claims of ownership of frozen sperm and frozen embryos. Since the ivf protocol often results in multiple births, some observers have raised questions about the wisdom of its use. The major problem now, however, concerns the rapid development of genetic manipulation techniques and the possibility in the near future of using these techniques to create designer children. In the period since the first test-tube baby was born, hundreds of thousands of children have been born through the use of one or another assisted reproduction techniques. These techniques are now available worldwide. They are likely to remain both popular and controversial for decades to come.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Investigate the decade between the formation of Edwards and Steptoe’s partnership and the birth of Louise Brown. What were some of the obstacles that had to be overcome before a successful birth could occur?
2. Interview couples who have used ivf protocols to have children about their experiences.
3. Do a research project on the position of the Catholic Church on assisted reproduction (see Suggested Sources).
4. Review decisions in court cases involving surrogate mothers and write a paper outlining how you would rule in the cases.
5. Interview doctors who use ivf protocols about the latest developments in assisted reproduction. 6. Write a short story that speculates on the choices women and men in the year 2015 may have when they decide to have children.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “Dolly the Sheep Cloned, 1997” (#96) and “John Paul II’s First Twenty Years as Pope, 1978–1999” (#98). Search under Peter Singer, Jeremy Rifkin, and On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life (Evangelium Vitae, papal encyclical, 25 March 1995).

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Brown, Lesley. Our Miracle Called Louise: A Parents’ Story. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1984. The story of the first test-tube baby from the perspective of the parents.

Edwards, R. G., and Patrick Steptoe. A Matter of Life: The Story of a Medical Breakthrough. New York: Morrow, 1980. The story of the first test-tube baby from the perspective of the doctors.

Secondary Sources

Charlesworth, M. J. Bioethics in a Liberal Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. A good overview of the ethical questions involved in ivf and other techniques.

Coughlan, Michael J. The Vatican, the Law and the Human Embryo. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 1990. A good introduction to the position taken by the Catholic Church.

Flynn, Eileen P. Human Fertilization in Vitro: A Catholic Moral Perspective. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1984. A good discussion of the Catholic position.

Gosden, Roger. Designing Babies: The Brave New World of Reproductive Technology. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1999. Gosden, once an associate of Robert Edwards, presents, in nontechnical language, the latest information on reproductive technology.

Holmes, Helen Bequaert, ed. Issues in—Reproductive Technology I: An Anthology. New York: Garland Press, 1992. A convenient collection of articles on controversies associated with reproductive technology.

Marsh, Margaret, and Wanda Ronner. The Empty Cradle: Infertility in America from Colonial Times to the Present. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. The problem of infertility from a historical perspective. Rifkin, Jeremy. The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World. New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1998. A warning about the dangers of biotechnology by an influential futurist.

Rosenberg, Helane S., and Yakov M. Epstein. Getting Pregnant When You Thought You Couldn’t: The Interactive Guide that Helps You Up the Odds. New York: Warner, 1993. One of many guides to the array of possibilities currently available in reproductive technology.

Singer, Peter, ed. Embryo Experimentation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Best known as an animal rights advocate, Singer is also at the forefront of controversy about ivf and other medical techniques.

World Wide Web

“Catholic Information Center on Internet.” http://catholic.net. Links to many Church documents including On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life, the papal encyclical from 1995.

“INCIID (International Council on Infertility Information Dissemination).” http://www.inciid.org. A convenient source for all kinds of information on infertility and assisted reproduction.