Louise Brown

Louise Joy Brown (born 25 July 1978) is an English woman noted as the first human born following conception by in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Her birth, following a procedure pioneered in Britain, has been lauded among "the most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th century".

Life

Brown's parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive naturally for nine years but Lesley faced complications from blocked fallopian tubes.<ref name=AFP>"World's first IVF baby marks 30th birthday", Template:Webarchive Agence France-Presse, 23 July 2008. Retrieved 24 July 2008.</ref> On 10 November 1977, Lesley underwent the procedure that later became known as in vitro fertilisation (IVF), developed by Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards, and Jean Purdy. Although the media would refer to Brown as a "test tube baby",<ref name="Hall">Template:Cite news</ref> her conception actually took place in a Petri dish. Purdy was the first to see Brown's embryonic cells dividing.<ref name="ABC News">Template:Cite news</ref>

Louise Joy Brown was born on 25 July 1978 at Oldham's General Hospital, via a planned C-section performed by John Webster.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth.<ref name=AFP/> In 1982, Brown's sister Natalie was born after also being conceived through IVF, becoming the world's 40th such live birth; in May 1999, Natalie became the first human conceived by IVF to herself give birth, though she did so without IVF.<ref name=AFP/>

In 2004, Brown married nightclub doorman Wesley Mullinder; Edwards, the only surviving member from the trio who pioneered IVF, attended their wedding.<ref name=AFP/> Their first son, conceived naturally,<ref name="Hall"/> was born on 20 December 2006.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She has since had another child.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Brown's father died in 2006 at the age of 64,<ref name="Grady">Grady, Denise (23 June 2012). "Lesley Brown, Mother of World's First 'Test-Tube Baby,' Dies at 64", The New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2020.</ref> while her mother died in 2012 due to complications from a gallbladder infection, also at the age of 64.<ref name="Grady"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Recognition

Brown's birth has been lauded as one of the "most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th century".<ref name="Walsh">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2022, a plaque was installed on Royal Oldham Hospital to record the importance of Purdy and Sister Muriel Harris to the work.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ethical and religious issues

Although the Browns knew the procedure was experimental, the doctors did not tell them that no case had yet resulted in a baby, prompting questions of informed consent.<ref>Marantz Henig, Robin. Pandora's Baby, Houghton Mifflin, 2004, p 134</ref>

In 1978, when asked for his reaction to Brown's birth, Cardinal Albino Luciani (who was then the Patriarch of Venice and later became Pope John Paul I) expressed concerns about the possibility that artificial insemination could lead to women being used as "baby factories" but also noted that the Browns simply wanted to have a baby and refused to condemn them.<ref>Prospettive nel Mondo,1 August 1978; Luciani, Opera Omnia, vol. 8, pp. 571–72.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Publications

• Template:Cite book

External links

• BBC profile of Louise Brown (July 2003)
• The Lesley Brown Collection, 1970 to circa 2015, at Bristol Archives