JULY 25 - 1978 :

Born July 25, 1978, in Oldham, England. Louise Joy Brown is best known as the world's first "test-tube baby." Her birth by Caesarian section shortly before midnight on July 25, 1978, at Oldham General Hospital in England, made headlines around the world.

Since 1968, Drs. Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe had been researching fertility methods that included artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, or IVF. IVF is the process in which an egg is removed from a woman??s ovaries, harvested and fertilized with a male's sperm in a laboratory, then implanted in the woman??s uterus where it develops to term. Although now widely accepted, the IVF process that ultimately led to the conception of Louise Brown was hotly debated within medical and religious circles alike. IVF is still considered unethical by many religious groups, and the physicians who practice this method of fertilization continue to face accusations of "playing God." Nonetheless, Since Louise's birth in 1978, over one million children have been born using the IVF procedure.