Professor Robert Edwards, a British national has won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Edwards developed a procedure known as “in-vitro fertilization”.
In-vitro fertilization (IVF) allows couples who have not been successful with conception to conceive. This procedure has drawn sharp criticism from the religious community over the years but has helped infertile couples over the past three decades conceive and bear children.
Edwards along with British gynecologist and surgeon, Patrick Steptoe, began researching in-vitro fertilization back in the 1950s. The procedure requires the removal of the ovaries and fertilization outside the body. After fertilization of the eggs, the implantation of the eggs in the womb takes place. Steptoe died in 1988 prior to the procedure becoming one of the most popular solutions for infertility.
Louise Brown born 1978 was the first birth through this procedure. Brown’s birth marked an epic event in treating fertility problems. This breakthrough has resolutions to the infertility question that afflicts a huge percentage of couples including more than 10 percent of all the married couples globally.
A Stockholm based medicine prize committee said of the procedure, “Approximately 4 million individuals have been born thanks to IVF,”. The committee also said, “Today, Robert Edwards’ vision is a reality and brings joy to infertile people all over the world.”
A Swedish industrialist called Alfred Nobel started the prestigious award for advancements in medicine in which the winner gets ten million kronor, equivalent of one point five million dollars. The first reward was given out in the year 1901, 5 years just after Nobel’s death.