Nobel Prize 2010: Robert Edwards Wins for Test Tube Baby Research
(CBS/AP) An English scientist has won the Nobel Prize in medicine for developing in vitro fertilization (IVF), a controversial technique that ignited sharp criticism from religious leaders but helped millions of infertile couples in the last three decades have children.
Robert Edwards, an 85-year-old professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, started working on IVF in the 1950s. He developed the technique - in which egg cells are removed from a woman, fertilized outside her body and then implanted into the womb - together with British gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988.
"(Edwards') achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity, including more than 10 percent of all couples worldwide," the medicine prize committee in Stockholm said in its citation.
"Approximately 4 million individuals have been born thanks to IVF," the citation said. "Today, Robert Edwards' vision is a reality and brings joy to infertile people all over the world."
On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown in Britain became the first baby born through the groundbreaking procedure, marking a revolution in fertility treatment.
The Vatican is opposed to IVF because it involves separating conception from the "conjugal act" -- sexual intercourse between a husband and wife - and often results in the destruction of human embryos that are taken from a woman but not used.
The controversy over in-vitro technology has not dimmed despite its popularity. In the last few years, the increasing use of IVF has also raised discussions about what age it's appropriate to become a mother. In 2006, a 67-year-old Spanish woman became a mother after she used IVF technology to conceive twins, only to die herself two years later.
"Louise's birth signified so much," Edwards said at Brown's 25th birthday celebration in 2003. "We had to fight a lot of opposition but we had concepts that we thought would work and they worked."Edwards was said to be too ill to give interviews.
Brown, now 32, reportedly is a postal worker in the English coastal city of Bristol.
"It's fantastic news, me and mum are so glad that one of the pioneers of IVF has been given the recognition he deserves," Brown said in a statement. "We hold Bob in great affection and are delighted to send our personal congratulations."
In 2007 she gave birth to her first child - a boy named Cameron.
She said the child was conceived naturally.
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