Nobel-Laureate vindicated for researching childlessness
This year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine rightfully but belatedly went
to Dr Robert Edwards, the British biologist who amidst intense criticism
enabled couples otherwise fated to be childless bear children. In vitro
fertilization triumphed as being authentic. What sweet vindication!
IVF has produced nearly four million test-tube babies worldwide. The
word is used so often it is almost slang. But in 1978 Dr Edwards was
reviled when Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby was conceived.
All hell broke lose. Some even felt it was the greatest threat to
humanity since the atomic bomb. What nourishing satisfaction it must be
for Dr Edwards!
Dr Robert Edwards
* Born: September 27, 1925 (age 85)
* British biologist
* Known for reproductive medicine in-vitro fertilization
* First test-tube baby, Louise Brown, born on July 25, 1978
* Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010
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Dr Robert
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Even the usually liberal scientists suspected that the first
test-tube baby might be born with monstrous birth defects. Many said “do
not mess around with eggs and sperm in a Petri-dish.” This would lead to
serious chromosomal mischief they argued.
Criticism was a mismatch
Thirty-two years later IVF is mainstream. Why? Attitudes changed. The
propelling mismatch between what was deemed grotesque and the end result
of a much sought-after phenomenal pregnancy was too obvious.
The public accepted the procedure as babies came out normal and
healthy. It is true of all technology. When the first steam-powered
locomotive traversed through rural England some wrote letters to the
Editor that hens were laying fewer eggs due to train engine vibrations.
The history of in vitro fertilization proved that getting acceptance
was a matter of time. The public has pooh-poohed all the predicted
nightmares of this procedure. Caution vanished as millions embraced the
technology.
The debate about pursuing promising yet controversial medical
advances in genetic engineering tended to go that way.
Dr Edwards and his collaborator, the gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe,
who died in 1988, became notorious after they announced that they had
fertilized a human egg outside the mother’s womb. In England, reporters
camped out outside the prospective parents, Lesley and John Brown, for
weeks before the baby’s due date.
When Mrs Brown checked into Oldham General Hospital, outside
Manchester, to give birth took precaution to use an assumed name when
checking in. Many reporters somehow sneaked past security dressed as
plumbers and priests in hopes of getting a glimpse of the mother-to-be.
The two scientists faced severe criticism and even bodily harm.
Attitude towards the pregnancy grew increasingly extreme. Religious
groups led the charge. Many asked should doctors be allowed to play God.
This is the slippery slope towards anatomical aberrations and there
would be artificial wombs and baby farms they predicted.
Fortunately, Louise Brown was born a normal child-a healthy, 5-pound,
12-ounce blond baby girl with no defects what so ever. IVF had passed
the test? There was nothing to fear.
Blessing for interfile couples
The birth of the ‘baby of the century’ in 1978 augured well for
millions of infertile couples - nearly four million babies worldwide
have been conceived with the procedure.
There were some side issues that came up. Many immediately raised new
questions like would single women or gay couples use the technology?
Would it be all right for couples to create and save excess embryos to
be used in later attempts if the first try failed?
Some even said that there would be an increase in ‘designer babies,’
carrying certain selected genes; pre-implantation genetic diagnosis,
which allows the possibility of choosing the baby’s sex; and human
cloning. So the debate went on.
Optimistic model for technology
Science fiction is reportedly filled with dystopian stories in which
the public blindly accepts destructive technologies. But in-vitro
fertilization offers a more optimistic model. Dr Edwards proved that as
we continue to develop new ways of improving upon nature, the slope may
be slippery, but that’s no reason to avoid taking the first step. Dr
Edwards himself noted in the early 1970s, just because a technology can
be abused doesn’t mean it will be. Electricity is a good thing, he said,
regardless of its leading to the invention of the electric chair.
The debate still goes on as there are some naysayers arguing that
technology must be harnessed in a cautious manner. Procuring sperm or
eggs, is subject to scrutiny. Couples look for eggs as if you’d go
shopping for a house or a car.
Buying ova from an accomplished undergraduate, or sperm from a
6-foot-8, athletic, blue-eyed movie star or a common or garden Joe takes
time. Today a person selling you the right to bear and rear their
biological offspring can do so anonymously, with no future strings
attached at all.
The most important thing is to ensure that the interests of the
child, not the desires of the would-be-parent be treated as paramount
throughout.
Sperm donations generate between 30,000 and 60,000 conceptions every
year and roughly 6,000 children are conceived through egg donation
annually as well.
About a million American adults, if not more, are the biological
children of sperm donors.
The IVF technology is in full swing thanks to the pioneering work of
Dr Edwards.
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