the authors of the textbook report an interview with a patient named robert edwards

What is Edwards’s view on communication?

Moreover, Edwards encouraged a spirit of open communication and egalitarianism, which extended across all three groups, with sharing of resources, space, equipment, knowledge and ideas, as well as social activities.

How did Dr Edwards get funding for his research?

Through the 1960s, Edwards was funded by the Ford Foundation via grants first to Parkes and then to Austin to continue work on basic reproductive mechanisms, with an eye to developing new methods of fertility control.

Who was Robert Edwards?

Robert Geoffrey Edwards was born on 27 September 1925 in the small Yorkshire mill town of Batley, the year of the Batley deluge and ‘great flood’. He arrived into a working-class family, and Edwards, who was known by his middle name of Geoff until he was 18, was the second of three brothers, with an older brother, Sammy and a younger, Harry.

What inspired Robert Edwards to develop IVF?

The early life and career of Robert Edwards are described and re-evaluated in the light of documentary evidence. His early interest in the genetics of development provided the major motivation behind his goal of achieving IVF in humans. Through this work, he aimed to understand and hopefully to reduce the transmission of genetic disease in humans.

Abstract

The early influences on Robert Edwards’ approach to the scientific research that led to human IVF are described.

Introduction

Robert G Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine ‘for the development of in vitro fertilization’ ( Nobel, 2010 ). There is a variety of accounts of the events leading up to this discovery and its acceptance, most of them by participants (see Johnson et al., 2010 ), but historical scholarship is rarer.

Materials and methods

Primary sources used were: the publications by Edwards and Steptoe during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s; archives of the Royal Society of Medicine, Cambridge University, the Physiology Library at Cambridge and the personal papers of RG Edwards (courtesy of Ruth Edwards); unpublished transcripts of interviews with RG Edwards, K Elder and RL Gardner; personal recollections from the late 1970s by Edwards and Steptoe as recalled in interviews with Danny Abse for the autobiographical account ‘A Matter of Life’ and on film with Peter Williams; members of RG Edwards’ family and his colleagues and former students and staff members for clarificatory evidence about personal recollections by Edwards, for additional verifiable information and with whom to test some new interpretations..

Results

Robert Geoffrey Edwards was born on 27 September 1925 in the small Yorkshire mill town of Batley, the year of the Batley deluge and ‘great flood’. He arrived into a working-class family, and Edwards, who was known by his middle name of Geoff until he was 18, was the second of three brothers, with an older brother, Sammy and a younger, Harry.

Discussion

This paper describes some of the early years of Edwards’ life and work, in order to provide a context for the events leading up to the 1969 Nature paper describing IVF and the final validation of the claims made in that paper with the birth of Louise Brown in 1978.

Acknowledgements

I thank the Edwards family for their help in writing this account, for which, however, I take full responsibility.

Notes

Declaration: The author reports no financial or commercial conflicts of interest.