Today in history: The first test tube baby is born
JOBURG – The first test tube baby was born in Manchester England, today, 38 years ago.
Kicking and screaming, a new life brought into the world, on this day in history the first test-tube baby was born.
According to the history channel’s website, on 25 July, 1978, Louise Joy Brown, was born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England. She was the world’s first baby to be conceived via In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
Now considered a mainstream medical practice, IVF is a process whereby eggs are removed from a woman’s ovaries, fertilised in a laboratory and then inserted back into the woman’s uterus.
Although not created in a test tube, the term, ‘test-tube baby’ is commonly given to the practice because of the fertilization process carried out in a laboratory with lab equipment, normally a petri dish.
Even though the practice has allowed many women to conceive, it has also raised many ethical questions and arguments, such as the ethics behind replacing a natural process with technology and the destruction of marriage over laboratory breeding.
GRAPHIC: Video footage from the British Film Institute National Archive shows the birth of Louise Joy Brown
