Looking into the Test Tube: The Birth of IVF on British Television

Abstract

The birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first ‘test-tube baby’, has come to signify the moment at which technologically assisted human reproduction became a re ality. This was a highly mediated and visible reality, as this article explores through the example of a British television documentary about Louise Brown broadcast when she was just six weeks old, ‘To Mrs Brown… A Daughter’ (Thames Television, 1978). In the article, I discuss the programme alongside data from an interview with its producer, Peter Williams. Williams sought to convince the public that IVF was morally acceptable and to cultivate sympathy for the infertile through this film. I will consider how he went about this by focusing on the programme’s visual presentation of Louise Brown, Peter Williams’ aims in making the film and his sympathetic relationship with the ‘pioneers’ of IVF, gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and physiologist Robert Edwards. I will conclude with a discussion of the political implications of this film and how it contributed to the normalisation of IVF at a pivotal moment in its history.

The Birth of first JIPMER “ICSI” Baby

“…There are more than 70 articles that described the birth of first test tube baby, Louis brown and the scientists who made it possible underwent great criticism initially. [4,5] The history of human invitro fertilization has been recently reviewed [3] and it is reported that the first pregnancy which ended up in early embryo demise was in Melbourne , Australia and the procedure was performed in 1973 by Prof. Carl Wood and John Leeton. In 1976, Patrick Christopher Steptoe, Gynaecologist and Robert Geoffrey Edwards, a British physiologist published a report of ectopic pregnancy following transfer of a morula.…”

Kin-making in the Reproductive Penumbram: Surrogacy in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…This choice does not disregard the biogenetic connection but deemphasizes it to help support the vision of kin that they are helping to create 117 . The idea that motherhood and kinship are culturally constructed has been argued by Critical Kinship scholars (Dow 2019;Franklin 1997;Teman 2010;Weiss 1994), problematising the assumptions within psychosocial studies that postulate that a lack of maternal instinct or mother-child bonding is due to psychological issues (Alhusen 2008;Ciccarelli 1997, 2;Condon andCorkindale 1997 Resnick 1990;Teman 2008). Jacobson (2016, 5) writes:…”

Reconstructing Robert Edwards: biography and the history of reproduction

“…Yet the main resource is the vast printed (and increasingly digitized) record, from scientific journals and conference proceedings to glossy magazines and tabloid newspapers, and to a lesser extent television and radio broadcasts, interpretation of which has barely started (but see Van Dyck, 1995;Turney, 1998, pp. 166-187;and Dow, 2017and Dow, , 2019aand Dow, , 2019b; for an exemplary study, Nathoo, 2009;and for a general review, Hopwood et al, 2015). Analysis could, among many other things, bring several more patients from the Oldham programme into the picture (e.g., Bedford, 1970;New 'test tube' mother says: never again, 1970).…”