Medical miracles gather to mark the 30th birthday of IVF

Published on Monday 14 July 2008 22:25

NONE of them would be alive today without the efforts of two pioneering scientists who made IVF a reality 30 years ago this month.

Children and adults who owe their lives to the technique developed by Professor Bob Edwards and Dr Patrick Steptoe in the 1970s gathered in Cambridgeshire yesterday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the creation of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). They included Louise Brown from Bristol – the world's first IVF baby – who was born in 1978, and Alastair MacDonald, from Glasgow, the first male IVF baby, born in 1979. They were joined by 28 others born in each year since then – just a handful of more than three million babies born using the fertility treatment.

Despite being hailed a medical miracle, Ms Brown said she wanted to have a subdued 30th birthday on 25 July.

The mother of one said: "I might go out with my friends or have a meal with the family. I'm planning a quiet one."

Prof Edwards, now 82, joined the celebrations at the Bourn Hall Clinic he founded alongside Dr Steptoe, and used the occasion to respond to some religious concerns about IVF.

He said clergy who condemned IVF were "totally mistaken" and should support the procedure.

"Catholics are told not to do it and yet Catholics go and do it. All the Popes have done for themselves is teach their people to disobey them," he said.