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3 - The Lecture, 1979
- By Fiona Kisby Littleton, Susan Bewley
Fiona Kisby Littleton, University College London Institute of Education, Susan Bewley, Emeritus, King's College London, James Owen Drife, Emeritus, University of Leeds
Book:

Presenting the First Test-Tube Baby

Published online:

23 February 2023

Print publication:

16 March 2023, pp 48-130
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Summary

This chapter transcribes in full the groundbreaking lecture given by Edwards and Steptoe at the RCOG on 26 January 1979. The historical context is evoked by having the original images of the slides that the lecture spoke to inserted at the places where they were referenced, as they were essential for purposes of illustration. A scholarly set of notes is appended to help readers understand the text from the vantage point of four decades later, citing other relevant medical, scientific, pharmaceutical and biographical work.

1 - Introduction
- By Fiona Kisby Littleton, Susan Bewley, James Drife
Fiona Kisby Littleton, University College London Institute of Education, Susan Bewley, Emeritus, King's College London, James Owen Drife, Emeritus, University of Leeds
Book:

Presenting the First Test-Tube Baby

Published online:

23 February 2023

Print publication:

16 March 2023, pp 1-3
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Summary

This chapter describes how the 1979 lecture was rediscovered in the RCOG Archives, why the project was initially conceived, and how it was brought to fruition.

The Edwards and Steptoe Lecture of 1979
Fiona Kisby Littleton, Susan Bewley, James Owen Drife
Published online:

23 February 2023

Print publication:

16 March 2023
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In January 1979, Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe delivered a lecture detailing the ten-year clinical and scientific research programme that led to the birth of Louise Brown, the first baby born utilising IVF. This thoroughly-researched book provides both a full annotated transcript of the lecture as well as recorded reminiscences from those who attended, detailing the contemporary understandings of the event. An essay on the lecture's historical context adds fresh insight into the biographies of Edwards and Steptoe and highlights sources from print and broadcast media that have received scant attention in earlier publications. Current and future implications of the advances in IVF since the first procedure are also explored, examining future medical and scientific possibilities as well as ethical issues that may arise. A foreword by Louise Brown herself places this remarkable leap of science in a personal context, one that so many families have since experienced themselves.