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Test-tube baby pioneer dies aged 87
Thursday April 11, 2013 11:02:17 AM,
IANS
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London:
British scientist Robert Edwards, known as "father" of world's
first test-tube baby breathed his last Wednesday, the Cambridge
University announced. The 87-year-old died following prolonged
illness.
Edwards, who was awarded Nobel prize for his pioneering work in
developing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) along with his colleague
Patrick Steptoe, led to the birth of the first "test-tube baby"
Louise Brown in 1978, Xinhua reported.
The invention made millions of childless couples' dream come true
worldwide, as figures show about four million babies have been
born with the help of IVF treatment.
"It is with deep sadness the family announces that Professor Sir
Robert Edwards, Nobel prize winner, scientist and co-pioneer of
IVF, passed away peacefully in his sleep April 10, 2013 after a
long illness," a statement from Cambridge university said.
Born in Yorkshire in northern England Sep 27, 1925, into a
working-class family, Edwards served in the British army during
World War II before returning home to study first agricultural
sciences and then animal genetics.
Building on earlier research which showed that egg cells from
rabbits could be fertilised in test tubes when sperm was added,
Edwards developed the same technique for humans.
In a laboratory in Cambridge, eastern England, in 1968, he first
saw life created outside the womb in the form of a human
blastocyst, an embryo that has developed for five to six days
after fertilisation.
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, Britain's foremost
science institution, in 1984. He was also appointed an emeritus
professor at Cambridge in 1989.
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