In 1974, Landrum Shettles (1909–2003), a New York City–based gynecologist, fertilized a woman’s egg by mixing it with her husband’s sperm in a test tube. He believed that he could implant the embryo in the mother’s womb. But before he could attempt the procedure, the head of his department heard about the experiment and instructed him to stop, fearing the creation of a genetically deformed child and concerned about the religious and ethical implications. Nonetheless, 4 years later the first baby created using this laboratory process, called in vitro fertilization (IVF), was born, in Norfolk, England. That baby, Louise Brown (1978–), went on to become an administrative worker and mother.

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To conduct IVF, a sperm specimen is taken from the man and eggs are harvested from the woman. They’re placed in a laboratory dish, where fertilization occurs. Over the next few days, the embryo divides repeatedly until it becomes a ball of cells, called a blastocyst. Meanwhile, the woman receives the hormone progesterone to prepare her uterine lining for an embryo. At this point, the blastocyst is placed in the uterus, where it floats free for up to 3 days until it attaches to the wall of the uterus. IVF is successful when the embryo implants in the uterine lining and begins to grow into a fetus.

Since it became available to the public, IVF has often been a topic of religious and ethical arguments. In 1987, the Roman Catholic Church released a statement opposing the procedure, because IVF removes procreation from the marital context. What’s more, embryos not used for implantation are sometimes destroyed, which the Church considers abortion.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. The experts who carried out the first successful IVF birth were Patrick Steptoe (1913–1988) and Robert G. Edwards (1925–).
  2. The term in vitro means “in glass”; natural conception is called in vivo, or “in the living.”