Book contents
- Presenting the First Test-Tube Baby
- Presenting the First Test-Tube Baby
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 From Oldham and Cambridge to the Rest of the World
- 3 The Lecture, 1979
- 4 The Professional Reminiscence, 2019
- 5 The Local Reminiscence
- 6 The Legacy
- Index
- References
2 - From Oldham and Cambridge to the Rest of the World
The Contexts and Contents of the Lecture, 1978–1980
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2023
Book contents
- Presenting the First Test-Tube Baby
- Presenting the First Test-Tube Baby
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 From Oldham and Cambridge to the Rest of the World
- 3 The Lecture, 1979
- 4 The Professional Reminiscence, 2019
- 5 The Local Reminiscence
- 6 The Legacy
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter outlines the background to the lecture by Edwards and Steptoe in January 1979. Littleton brings the Health Service and the 1970s research programme to life in the context of a town in Northern England. She describes the initial and subsequent coverage of the first ‘test-tube baby’ in print and broadcast media and sheds new light on the activities of Edwards and Steptoe in the period between the ending of their original Oldham research programme and the opening of their new clinic, Bourn Hall in Cambridgeshire, in autumn 1980 up until circa 1982. New material is included in the photographs and screengrabs taken from video of relevant archival material. New insights into the key characters and the reaction to their work are presented.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Presenting the First Test-Tube BabyThe Edwards and Steptoe Lecture of 1979, pp. 4 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Patrick Christopher Steptoe 1913–1988, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40084, accessed 5 January 2017.Google Scholar
ML, p. 66.Google Scholar
Litynski, GS, Steptoe, PC. Laparoscopy, sterilization, the test-tube baby, and mass media. Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons / Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons 1998;2(1):99–101.Google ScholarPubMed
Steptoe, PC. Laparoscopy in Gynaecology. Edinburgh: E. and S. Livingstone, 1967; Gynaecological endoscopy – laparoscopy and culdoscopy. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 1965;72:535–43. For additional bibliography, see Edwards RG. Patrick Christopher Steptoe. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1996;42:434–52.Google Scholar
ML, p. 33.Google Scholar
Sir Edwards, Robert Geoffrey 1925–2013, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/106352, accessed 5 January 2017.Google Scholar
Johnson, MH. Robert Edwards: the path to IVF. Reproductive Biomedicine Online 2011;23(2):245–62.Google Scholar
ML, p. 77.Google Scholar
For a summary of the Green Armytage Lecture ‘Recent Endoscopic Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of the Infertile Couple’, see RCOG Library, E10/8A/4. For the bibliography of original journal articles by Steptoe, Edwards and Purdy, see Gardner, R. Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards CBE. Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society 2015;61:81–102, supplemental material, items 68, 78, 90, 93, 101, 117, 149 etc. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/suppl/10.1098/rsbm.2014.0020, accessed 21 December 2021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
E&J.Google Scholar
See, among other items, Kovacs, G, Brinsden, P, DeCherney, A. In Vitro Fertilization: the Pioneers’ History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018; Gosden R. Let There Be Life: An Intimate Portrait of Robert Edwards and His IVF Revolution. Williamsburg, VA: Jamestowne Bookworks, 2019; ‘Mammalian developmental biology interviews’, British Library London, 2012; Johnson MH. Robert Edwards: Nobel Laureate in physiology or medicine. Nobel Lecture/Nobel Prize Symposium in Honour of Robert G. Edwards, 7 December 2010, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2010/edwards_lecture.pdf, accessed 21 December 2021; Johnson MH. Why the medical research council refused Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe support for research on human conception in 1971. Human Reproduction 2010;25(9):2157–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
E&J.Google Scholar
See bibliography cited in Note 11 for relevant material.Google Scholar
Steptoe, PC, Edwards, RG. Reimplantation of a human embryo with subsequent tubal pregnancy. Lancet 1976;307(7965):880–82. See also Littleton F, Bewley S. Honouring ‘Patient 38’ – a mother of all IVF mothers? Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online 2019;8:7–9.Google Scholar
I was the world’s first IVF mother-to-be … The Telegraph, 28 April 1999, p. 8. The author is grateful to Mr and Mrs Platt for granting permission (personal communication, December 2021) to write about their case using records in the public domain.Google Scholar
WA, Television News Script, 26 July 1978, 1:15 PM bulletin.Google Scholar
WA, Television News Script, 26 July 1978, 9:00 PM bulletin; E&J, supplementary table, Patient 264 (Lesley Brown) and Patient 247 (Grace MacDonald) gave birth; Patient 267 aborted at eleven weeks, and Patient 268 aborted at twenty and a half weeks.Google Scholar
Radio Times, no. 2415, 23 February 1970, 25, 27.Google Scholar
British Film Institute London, item no. LSF5331S.Google Scholar
E&J, supplementary table, pp. 2, 5, Patient 9, third attempt, ‘first fertilization’ 21 November 1969.Google Scholar
E.g. OEC, 24 February 1970, 2 March 1970; Move to threshold of genetic engineering, The Times, 25 February 1970, p. 10; Test tube babies raise moral issue, Daily Telegraph, 25 February 1970, p. 3.Google Scholar
Test tube baby operation on Londoner. London Evening Standard, 26 July 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/1/2/95; EDWS 1/1/1/31.Google Scholar
Radio Times, no. 2767, 22 November 1976, pp. 35, 37. WA, Non-drama written scripts, 3–23 November 1976, microfilm 195/6.Google Scholar
Phillips, JM, ed. Microsurgery in Gynaecology: the Proceedings of the Workshop for Laparoscopy and Microsurgical Repair of the Fallopian Tube and the First International Congress of Gynecologic Microsurgery with Selected Invited Papers. St Louis, MO: American Association of Gynecological Laparoscopists, 1977;Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23, Barbara Rankin to Pierre Soupart, 16 August 1978.Google Scholar
British Film Institute London, item 376772; Thames television schedule. The Times, 7 September 1978, p. 29; Dow, K. Looking into the test tube: the birth of IVF on British television. Medical History 2019;63(2):189–208.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/3/15; Holland, P. The Angry Buzz: This Week and Current Affairs Television. New York: Bloomsbury, 2006; 171. For international broadcasts of the show, see e.g. Canberra Times, 22 September 1978, p. 17; Canberra Times, 29 September 1978, p. 16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Programme Summary and Producer’s Notes, Fremantle Media International, Stephen Street London. The author is grateful to Alexandra Henwood for supplying these documents.Google Scholar
BBC and ITN to show birth of test-tube baby. The Times, 22 August 1978, p. 2; Britain baby goes on TV London Friday. Canberra Times, 26 August 1978, p. 4.Google Scholar
Jacques Cousteau, French sea diver, scientist and filmmaker popular during the 1970s. Banks-Smith N. Television: TV eye. The Guardian, 8 September 1978, p. 8.Google Scholar
EDWS4/14/2 letter from Hutchinson Publishing, 3 August 1978; EDWS 16/5/1 letter from Hutchinson Publishing, 11 September 1978; EDWS16/5/1 letter to Robert Edwards from Harold Harris Hutchinson Publishing Group, 21 February 1979; EDWS 16/5/1 letter from Steptoe to Harold Harris, 11 January 1980.Google Scholar
The Observer, 16 March 1980, Section 4, pp. 45–46; 23 March 1980, pp. 45–46; 30 March 1980, pp. 45–46. RCOG archive London, E4/19, letter to Alan Williams, 20 March 1980.Google Scholar
RCOG archive London E4/19 Additional papers, letter to Alain Williams, 20 March 1980.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 part 2 of 2 letter from Peter Braude, 27 July 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS1/1/2/165 letter from C. E. Ford, 31 July 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 letter to Dr R. Hinton, 19 September 1978; letter to J. Browning Oldham Area Health Authority, 9 August 1978; letter to Mr S. Hamberger, 9 August 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 letter from Professor W. H. Stone, Genetics Building, University of Wisconsin Madison, USA, 29 October 1978.Google Scholar
Bevis DC. The problem of the rhesus-negative mother. Practitioner 1967;198(184):239–47; Bevis DC. The antenatal prediction of haemolytic disease of the newborn. Lancet 1952;259(6704):395–98.Google Scholar
Difficult ethical problems call for careful thought – BMA. The Times, 25 February 1970, p. 10.Google Scholar
Bevis DC. Embryo transplants. British Medical Journal 1974;5925:216, 238, 270.Google Scholar
Test-tube baby alive and well in Britain. The Times, 16 July 1974, p. 1; 3 test-tube babies born. The Sun, 16 July 1974, p. 1.Google Scholar
Test-tube baby unit for childless women. The Guardian, 21 July 1974, p. 3.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 part 2 of 2 letter from J. D. Schulman, 7 February 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/1/1/31 letter to Ian Craft, 9 August 1974; Steptoe PC, Edwards RG, Shulman J, Purdy J. The recovery of human preovulatory oocytes, fertilisation in vitro cleavage and embryo transfer. In Campos da Paz A, et al., eds. Recent Advances in Human Reproduction: Proceedings of the First International Congress on Human Reproduction, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 11–14, 1974. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1976; 292.Google Scholar
Steptoe, PC, Edwards, RG. Birth after the reimplantation of a human embryo. Lancet 1978;312(8085):366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Medical Journal 1978;2(6163):565.Google Scholar
British Medical Journal 1978;2(6163):426.Google Scholar
OEC, 11, 12 July 1978. ‘Test-tube baby gets silver spoon’ and ‘Hospital sources say world’s first … test-tube birth is “within days”’.Google Scholar
British Medical Journal 1978;2(6163):565.Google Scholar
A private hospital room had to be paid for by Mrs Brown for her to avoid press attention potentially harmful to the pregnancy, and John Brown had to take compassionate leave from his regular employment for several months. Brown, L. My Life as the World’s First Test-Tube Baby. Bristol, UK: Bristol Books, 2015; 35–38.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 letter to Pierre Soupart, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Vanderbilt University Tennessee, 13 September 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 letter to Pierre Soupart, 13 September 1978; EDWS 1/1/2/152 part 1 of 2 letter to Mrs E. E. Philipp, 10 October 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 part 2 of 2 letter from the librarian of Cambridge University Library to Edwards, waiving the fee of £14.40 for overdue library books, 2 October 1978.Google Scholar
Retirement reported by OEC, 7 March 1978.Google Scholar
MacPherson M. First test tube baby: the begetting of Louise Brown. Los Angeles Times, 12 November 1978, part VIII, p. 4; Macpherson M. The doctor behind the ‘test tube baby’. Washington Post, 12 October 1978, pp. D1, D15.Google Scholar
Calcutta’s miracle baby. Times of India, 22 October 1978, p. 11; Test tube baby’ symposium ends in chaos. Times of India, 20 November 1978, p. 5; Tube baby: no comments from scientists. Times of India, 9 October 1978.Google Scholar
Bharadwaj, A. The Indian IVF saga: a contested history. Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online 2016;2:54–61.Google Scholar
Kudos for the doctor. Washington Post, 10 October 1978, p. B4 9; Washington Post, 12 October 1978, Final Edition, p. C8.Google Scholar
Chicago Tribune, 31 October 1978, Section 3, p. 6.Google Scholar
Atlanta Constitution, 1 November 1978, p. 2B.Google Scholar
Test tube birth doctor will get US award. The Times, 2 November 1978, p. 8; Test tube doctor snub. Daily Express, 31 October 1978, p. 3.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/5/1 letter from William Andrews, 31 October 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 11/2/78 press release, American Fertility Society, Birmingham, AL, USA.Google Scholar
EDWS 6/1 statement issued by Dr Robert Edwards of Cambridge University.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/2/1 letter to Edwards from Vinters Solicitors, 9 November 1978; EDWS 1/5/1 letter from Edwards to William Andrews, 10 November 1978.Google Scholar
Letter of 14 August 1978 concerning Arthur Wilson Memorial Oration, from Steptoe to Professor Sir Lance Townsend, archive of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Gynaecologists, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Google Scholar
Leeton, J. Test Tube Revolution: The Early History of IVF. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University Publishing, 2013.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/1/1/34 part 2 of 2 letter from Alex Lopata, 18 November 1975, 5 March 1976; letter from Robert Edwards, 21 November 1975.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 part 1 of 2 letter from Alex Lopata, Monash University Dpt of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, 1 March 1978. Newspaper coverage broke the story on 19 and 20 April 1978: New York Post, 19 April 1978; OEC, 20 April 1978, p. 1.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 part 1 of 2, letter from Edwards, 10 March 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/1/1/40 letter of 19 September 1978 from Edwards to Professor A. J. Therkelwen, Institut for Human Genetick, Holland.Google Scholar
Edwards, RG. Early human development: from the oocyte to implantation. In Philipp, EE, Barnes, J, Newton, M, eds. Scientific Foundations of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. London: Heinemann Medical, 1977; 175–252.Google Scholar
Test tube baby film highlights. Canberra Times, 5 November 1978, p. 6.Google Scholar
Jones, H. In Vitro Fertilization Comes to America: Memoir of a Medical Breakthrough. Williamsburg, VA: Jamestowne Bookworks, 2014; 58.Google Scholar
Reminiscence, 23 June 2010, www.mivf.com.au/new-developments-in-ivf/latest-news-on-ivf/30th-anniversary-ivf-australia, accessed 14 October 2016.Google Scholar
Misremembered by Howard Jones as a December visit in Jones, H. In Vitro Fertilization Comes to America: Memoir of a Medical Breakthrough. Williamsburg, VA: Jamestowne Bookworks, 2014 (compare pp. 55 and 58).Google Scholar
Edwards, R, Donahue, R, Bramki, T, Jones, H. Preliminary attempts to fertilise human oocytes matured in vitro. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 1966;96:192–200.Google Scholar
British physician at EVMS to plan for test-tube babies. Virginia Ledger Star, 20 November 1978, p. 1. Mason Andrews Archive, Old Dominion University, Virginia.Google Scholar
Jones, H. In Vitro Fertilization Comes to America: Memoir of a Medical Breakthrough. Williamsburg, VA: Jamestowne Bookworks, 2014: 57.Google Scholar
E&J, p. 16.Google Scholar
Bewley, S, Littleton, F. How should we honour and memorialise the experimental subjects who gave their hopes and lives to the development of IVF in Britain in the 1970s? British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2016;123(9):1566.Google Scholar
Edwards, R. Patrick Christopher Steptoe, C.B.E. 9 June 1913–22 March 1988. Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society 1996;42:447.Google Scholar
Edwards, RG, Purdy, J, eds. Human Conception. London: Vitro Academic Press, 1982; 343–45.Google Scholar
Edwards, R. Patrick Christopher Steptoe, C.B.E. 9 June 1913–22 March 1988. Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society 1996;42:447.Google Scholar
Personal correspondence from patient, 17 February 2018.Google Scholar
Boston Globe, 1 December 1978, p. 9; Chicago Tribune, 3 December 1978, Section 1, p. 2.Google Scholar
EDWS 5/3/1 letter from R. W. Beard, 31 July 1978.Google Scholar
EDWS 5/3/1 letter from R. W. Beard, 3 November 1978; see verbatim transcript, Chapter 3.Google Scholar
Churchill College Cambridge GBR/0014/BARA3, papers of Barbara Rankin, lecture registration card.Google Scholar
EDWS 5/3/3-4 letter from Anne McLaren, 2 February 1979.Google Scholar
RCOG E4/19 audience list.Google Scholar
In 1965, Edwards visited Georgeanna and Howard Jones at Johns Hopkins, where he attempted to fertilize oocytes in vitro; Cohen J, et al. The early days of IVF outside the UK. Human Reproduction Update 2005;5:439–59.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/1/2/49 letter to James Wilkinson, 8 October 1971.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/7/23 part 2 of 2 letter to Edwards, 9 February 1979.Google Scholar
EDWS 5/3/1 letter from Sir Anthony Alment, 30 January 1979.Google Scholar
E.g. Anne McLaren EDWS 5/3/3-4 letter to Edwards, 2 February 1979; EDWS 1/7/23 part 2 of 2 letter from Rosalind Hinton, 9 February 1979.Google Scholar
EDWS 5/3/1 letter from Paul Barnett Deputy Secretary, RCOG, 8 June 1979.Google Scholar
Test tube procedure delivered to Norfolk. Daily Press Newport News Virginia, 31 January 1979, p. 9. Mason Andrews Archive, Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA.Google Scholar
Jones, H. In Vitro Fertilization Comes to America: Memoir of a Medical Breakthrough. Williamsburg, VA: Jamestowne Bookworks, 2014; 64.Google Scholar
Alex Lopata Australian Embryologist reminiscence, 23 June 2010, www.mivf.com.au/new-developments-in-ivf/latest-news-on-ivf/30th-anniversary-ivf-australia, accessed 17 March 2022.Google Scholar
Churchill College Archives, Cambridge GBR/0014/BARA3, undated letter from Rankin. The press was managed by Mr Paul Barnett, then deputy secretary of the college (interview with author, 9 July 2021).Google Scholar
RCOG E4/19 additional papers, press release 26/1/1979.Google Scholar
Parry B. Two ‘Test Tube’ Abortions. Telegraph, 27 January 1979, p. 19.Google Scholar
Based on sources indicated and a list penned by Steptoe and Edwards themselves in EDWS1/2/6.Google Scholar
Duka, MM, Walter, E, DeCherney, MD, Alan, H. From the Beginning: A History of the American Fertility Society 1944–1994. Birmingham, AL: American Fertility Society, 1995; 154.Google Scholar
Possibly the film of the delivery made by the UK Central Office of Information for the Department of Health and Social Security.Google Scholar
RCOG E4/19 additional papers, letter from J. Hulka, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 26 February 1979.Google Scholar
RCOG E4/19 additional papers, letter from J. Hulka, 26 February 1979.Google Scholar
EDWS 1/1/2/158 letter from Edwards, 12 July 1979; EDWS 1/1/1/49b letter from Edwards, 14 November 1979.Google Scholar
EDWS 4/17 letters to Mr Frank Loeffler, Editor, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 30 November, 21 December 1979.Google Scholar
Leeton, J. Test Tube Revolution: The Early History of IVF. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University Publishing, 2013.Google Scholar
Latour, B, Woogar, S. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.Google Scholar