IVF And The Legacy Of Its Inventors

Robert G. Edwards, who won a Nobel Prize in 2010 for co-developing in-vitro fertilization, has died this week. He was 87. The first so-called test-tube baby, Louise Brown, whom he helped bring into the world, was born in 1978.

But 35 years later, the assisted reproduction industry that his work helped launch in the US remains controversial.

And it’s not hard to see why, according to this paper from the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley, CA.

The assisted reproduction field has so far developed largely outside the realm of public policy and with little public discussion about how new technologies should be used and who should have access to them. Difficult questions have had minimal public airing. Should access to reproductive technologies be limited to those who can pay for them? Should the characteristics of future children be pre-determined? What about efforts to develop extreme technologies such as reproductive cloning or genetic techniques for producing “enhanced” children? How can we safeguard the well-being of everyone involved in assisted reproduction, including children who are produced and third parties...