Why is it there is a test tube baby?

Answer 1

My friend's son was one of the first test tube babies in the world — in the late '80s, in England. Her husband had viable sperm and likewise, she also had viable eggs, but they were unable to conceive on their own, and after a couple of failed years they went to in-vitro fertilization. They went through a total of six in-vitro procedures over the next few years, and miscarried them all within the first trimester. For many reasons it was extremely important for them to have their own biological child, however, by this point they were in their late 30s and becoming very desperate. Surrogacy was almost unheard of in the 80s, and I don't think it was an option if they wanted their child to be genetically linked to both of them. It was their circumstances and the desperation of their situation that made them candidates for such a rare experimental procedure for the time. Ultimately, the doctors took one of the fertilized eggs and grew it externally, in a test tube, to full-term. The "delivery" of their healthy baby boy, who was, I believe, the sixth successful test-tube baby in the world, occurred outside of the mother's body, and the baby was just as normal as the next.