Description

The authorized biography of IVF pioneer Robert Edwards is a compelling account of how he led a medical and social revolution by making babies in 'test-tubes'. Prevailing against immense opposition when human embryology was new and sacrosanct territory, he was the champion of people with infertility, and now millions more owe their existence to assisted reproductive technologies. An improbable hero of science, he was the son of a coal miner who almost failed his first university degree, but the gritty Yorkshireman rode a roller-coaster of emotions and obstacles to a breakthrough for which he was rewarded with a Nobel Prize and knighthood. After the first IVF babies, he became an entrepreneurial clinic director and publisher, but, alas, never received so much acclaim for the foundations of embryo stem cell science and embryo screening for heritable diseases.