The world's first 'test-tube baby' was born
On this day · 25 July 1978
A baby girl born in northern England in 1978 proved that human life could begin in a laboratory dish and grow up perfectly ordinary.
On July 25, 1978, Louise Joy Brown was born at Oldham General Hospital in England — the first human conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF). Her mother, Lesley Brown, had years of infertility from blocked fallopian tubes, leaving conception in the body impossible.
The breakthrough was the work of gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, scientist Robert Edwards, and embryologist Jean Purdy. They removed a mature egg, fertilized it with sperm in a laboratory dish, then transferred the resulting embryo to the womb. Louise weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces.
The phrase “test-tube baby” stuck, even though no test tube was involved.
Her birth signaled the moment assisted reproduction became reality, and IVF has since helped millions of people become parents. Edwards received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the work; Steptoe and Purdy had died before they could share it.
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