Time & Perspective
The world greeted little Louise with a combination of
excitement and
worry. We're accustomed to similar reactions now
when news is made about
far-fetched-sounding fertility treatment techniques.
There will always
be plenty of "devil's advocates" when it comes to
reproductive medicine.
Meanwhile, there are still millions of people who
desperately want to
conceive and have a baby.
All these years later, IVF is no longer the big news that
it was when
Louise's parents gave it a try with the help of physician
pioneers
Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe in Great Britain.
It's not a perfect
treatment, but we've advanced to the point of being
able to produce
pregnancy with single embryo transfers for some
women. Others are able
to utilize IVF without the high dosages of fertility
medication that
were used long ago.
Most importantly, the children who are conceived with
IVF have been
thoroughly studied in every way and found to be
normal as children
conceived "the old fashioned way." That fact has
probably been the
biggest contributing factor in the world's acceptance
over time of what
was initially rather scary medical treatment.
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