British scientist Robert Edwards has won the 2010 Nobel Prize in medicine for the development of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), a breakthrough that has helped millions of infertile couples to have children.
Professor Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988, developed the IVF technique, in which egg cells are fertilised outside the body and implanted in the womb.
Prof Edwards (85), started working on the technique in the 1950s.
On July 25th, 1978, Louise Brown became the first baby born through the groundbreaking procedure, marking a revolution in fertility treatment.
“His achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity including more than 10 per cent of all couples worldwide,” the medicine prize committee in Stockholm said in its citation.
“Approximately four million individuals have been born thanks to IVF,” it said. “Today, Robert Edwards’ vision is a reality and brings joy to infertile people all over the world.”
The probability of an infertile couple taking home a baby after a cycle of IVF today is one in five, about the same probability that couples who have no need of intervention have of conceiving naturally.
PA