Jump to content

Louise Brown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Louise Joy Brown)
For other people named Louise Brown, see Louise Brown (disambiguation).

Louise Brown
Born (1978-07-25) 25 July 1978 (age 46)
Oldham, England
Spouse
Wesley Mullinder
​
(m. 2004)​
Children2

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

[edit]

Brown's parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive naturally for nine years but Lesley faced complications from blocked fallopian tubes.[1] 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",[2] her conception actually took place in a Petri dish. Purdy was the first to see Brown's embryonic cells dividing.[3]

Louise Joy Brown was born on 25 July 1978 at Oldham's General Hospital, via a planned C-section performed by John Webster.[4] She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth.[1] 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.[1]

In 2004, Brown married nightclub doorman Wesley Mullinder; Edwards, the only surviving member from the trio who pioneered IVF, attended their wedding.[1] Their first son, conceived naturally,[2] was born on 20 December 2006.[5] She has since had another child.[6] Brown's father died in 2006 at the age of 64,[7] while her mother died in 2012 due to complications from a gallbladder infection, also at the age of 64.[7][8]

Recognition

[edit]

Brown's birth has been lauded as one of the "most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th century".[9][10][11][12]

Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work.[13]

In 2022, a plaque was installed on Royal Oldham Hospital to record the importance of Purdy and Sister Muriel Harris to the work.[14]

Ethical and religious issues

[edit]
See also: Moral theology of John Paul I

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.[15]

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.[16][17]

Publications

[edit]
  • Brown, Louise; Powell, Martin (2015). Louise Brown: My Life As the World's First Test-Tube Baby. Wraxall: Bristol Books CIC. ISBN 978-1-909446-08-3. OCLC 1023273709. Bristol Archives Bk/2552.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d "World's first IVF baby marks 30th birthday", Archived 26 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine Agence France-Presse, 23 July 2008. Retrieved 24 July 2008.
  2. ^ a b Hall, Sarah (11 July 2006). "Louise Brown, first test tube baby, is pregnant". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  3. ^ Weule, Genelle (25 July 2018). "The first IVF baby was born 40 years ago today". ABC News. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  4. ^ Hutchinson, Martin (24 July 2003). "I helped deliver Louise". BBC News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Baby son joy for test-tube mother". BBC News. 14 January 2007.
  6. ^ "The first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978 in the United Kingdom". KrishnaIVF News. 14 January 2007.
  7. ^ a b 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.
  8. ^ "First test tube baby mother Lesley Brown dies". BBC News. 20 June 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  9. ^ Walsh, Fergus (14 July 2008). "30th birthday for first IVF baby". BBC News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Louise Brown and Her Parents | Encyclopedia.com". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Louise Brown: World's first IVF baby's family archive unveiled". BBC News. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  12. ^ "'I was the world's first IVF baby, and this is my story'". The Independent. 25 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  13. ^ Wade, Nicholas (4 October 2010). "Pioneer of in Vitro Fertilisation Wins Nobel Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  14. ^ "Unsung heroine who saved refugees from Nazis honoured in Leeds". The Guardian. 8 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  15. ^ Marantz Henig, Robin. Pandora's Baby, Houghton Mifflin, 2004, p 134
  16. ^ Prospettive nel Mondo,1 August 1978; Luciani, Opera Omnia, vol. 8, pp. 571–72.
  17. ^ Eley, Adam (23 July 2015). "How has IVF developed since the first 'test-tube baby'?". BBC News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louise_Brown&oldid=1265544911"