Robert G. Edward Wins Nobel Prize for In Vitro Fertilization
Robert G. Edwards won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine this year. Together with his colleague, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, he has developed the in vitro fertilization for treating human fertility. The first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born on July 25, 1978,, and since then more than 4 million babies have been born in this manner.
The procedure is pretty straightforward: eggs and sperm are mixed outside of the body, and then the embryo is returned to the womb where it can grow in a normal manner. The procedure is a life saver, or I should say a life creator, as it can overcome many causes of infertility which were considered to be untreatable. In the developed countries almost 5 percent of the babies are born in this manner. The human reproductive technology has faced lost of criticism over the course of time. At first, it was blamed by the church, which said that the humans assume the role of God, by manipulating who can have babies.
The in vitro fertilization got the same “treatment”, so to say. The two scientists were constantly criticized by the press, the pope, and by the other Nobel laureates. Dr. Edwards’s development of in vitro fertilization, gave birth, no pun intended, to the human embryonic stem cell research. Just like in the case of the in vitro fertilization, the human stem cell research was harshly criticized, and it could even be stopped for good. However, despite all of these critics, and bad publicity, the parents who have benefited from it, do not see it as a bad thing, they see it as a blessing, or as a miracle. Dr. Edwards spent most of his career at Cambridge University, and he dedicated more than 20 years to solve a series of difficulties regarding the process of combining the eggs and sperm to mature and to unite outside the body.
Dr. Steptoe was a gynecologist, and he developed the laparoscopic surgery, which is the method through which the eggs are extracted from the body. It is very likely that Dr. Steptoe would have received the prize as well, only that he died in 1988, and the Nobel Prize is not offered posthumously. Dr. Edwards is now 85 years old, and because of his condition he can not fully comprehend what just happened. He does not fully understand that he won the Nobel Prize. Dr. Michael Macnamee, director of the Bourn Hall clinic and a longtime colleague of Dr. Edwards, stated that he can remember the past, but that he can not remember what happened in the present. Many people have wondered why the long delay for the prize.
Well, it is a known fact that the Swedish committee does not like to award prizes to controversial issues and people. It is very likely that if the in vitro fertilization would have not received all the criticism it had, Dr. Edwards would have received the prize a very long time ago. Some say that another reason why he did not receive the prize sooner, is because of his political associations with the socialist party. Alfred Nobel stipulated that the prize should be awarded for the discoveries and inventions made the previous year, but the people from the committee disagree, as they say that in a single year not all of the scientific claims can be analyzed. However, a delay of 30 years is very unusual, and it is the first time when this happened.
The Lasker Foundation awarded Dr. Edwards nine years ago, but Dr. Steptoe was still left out. The in vitro fertilization is now widely anticipated, but things have not been in this manner all the time. For example, the first time when a baby was born in this manner, there were lots of concerns. Dr. Edwards was aware of the fact that his invention met lots of criticism. The criticism started to be reduced in time, the only exception being the Roman Catholic Church, which kept on contesting the decision, like it happens in most of the cases. It was later proven that the babies born in this manner are healthy, and that there aren’t any dangers associated with it.
