Yes it is well over thirty years since the first ‘test tube baby’ created from in vitro fertilization was born and one of the two scientist a Dr. Steptoe that created the process of IVF has been dead for about half of those years while the other Dr. Edwards is apparently not in any sort of mental capacity to understand the honor of this award.

Those are comments that I read the other day in a NY Times article talking about the history of in vitro fertilization and it’s founding fathers if you will. So why did it take the Nobel committee so long to recognize these two scientist and their incredible contribution to the medical community.

In Vitro Fertilitzation

I mean after all there are well over 4 million people alive today thanks to the efforts of these two gentleman and all the medical advances that have followed. The post speculates that the committee has ‘ignored recognizing’ the IVF process due to the highly controversial nature of this scientific advancement. I mean let’s be honest the amount of social and moral back lash that came back at these guys and what they were doing was coming from all political, social and religious circles and they still do to a certain degree.

Here is the link to the original story about the pioneers of in vitro fertilization. I will say that even though we never did have a successful IVF procedure that we are extremely grateful that the procedure is out there and that we even had the opportunity to try it was a blessing in disguise. The amount of personal growth over the years due to this controversial procedure and the emotion and moral issues that we had to address as a family have been huge to our family over the years and we would not change one thing about it.