A Matter of Life. The Story of IVF - a Medical Breakthrough by Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe. We all owe immense gratitude to Edwards and Steptoe for their hard-work and sacrifices made to honor many humans as Dad's and Mom's. We should also never ever forget those little animals who laid their lives to "complete" so many of our families.
On the joy and pleasure of science and scientific discovery:
When I next peered down the microscope I could not help but feel elated. Surely something was beginning to move? Just a suggestion, but something. I must be patient. I must not look at the last egg too soon. The next four hours passed slowly, slowly, but when I did examine the final oocyte I felt as much excitement as I had ever experienced in all my life. Excitement beyond belief. At twenty-eight hours the chromosomes were just beginning their march through the centre of the egg. Fine, clear, absolutely visible, a slight to reward all my past efforts.
To observe a living vibrant embryo beginning its early steps of development is a most stimulating sight for an embryologist - whether it be mouse, rabbit, sea-urchin or human.
On the ubiquitous fad of fear-mongers unleashing their imagination sans the knowledge of science:
Terrible Brave-New-World visions such as those irritated me. They still do. They are based on the pessimistic assumption that the worst will happen. The whole edifice of their argument is fragile - that nuclear physics led inevitably to the atom bomb, electricity to the electric chair, civil engineering to the gas-chambers. Surely acceptance of the beginnings does not necesitate embracing undesirable ends? Even well meant attempts to describe our work were unsuccessful.
'A man's character is his destiny,' wrote the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, 2500 years ago. To a large degree, a man's character is determined by his genes, and though I did not know it for certain then my own destiny was being determined in that institute of Animal Genetics.
- Robert Edwards
On the joy and pleasure of science and scientific discovery:
When I next peered down the microscope I could not help but feel elated. Surely something was beginning to move? Just a suggestion, but something. I must be patient. I must not look at the last egg too soon. The next four hours passed slowly, slowly, but when I did examine the final oocyte I felt as much excitement as I had ever experienced in all my life. Excitement beyond belief. At twenty-eight hours the chromosomes were just beginning their march through the centre of the egg. Fine, clear, absolutely visible, a slight to reward all my past efforts.
To observe a living vibrant embryo beginning its early steps of development is a most stimulating sight for an embryologist - whether it be mouse, rabbit, sea-urchin or human.
On the ubiquitous fad of fear-mongers unleashing their imagination sans the knowledge of science:
Terrible Brave-New-World visions such as those irritated me. They still do. They are based on the pessimistic assumption that the worst will happen. The whole edifice of their argument is fragile - that nuclear physics led inevitably to the atom bomb, electricity to the electric chair, civil engineering to the gas-chambers. Surely acceptance of the beginnings does not necesitate embracing undesirable ends? Even well meant attempts to describe our work were unsuccessful.
'A man's character is his destiny,' wrote the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, 2500 years ago. To a large degree, a man's character is determined by his genes, and though I did not know it for certain then my own destiny was being determined in that institute of Animal Genetics.
- Robert Edwards
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