An arm and a leg for a fertilised egg
Doctors have spent decades trying to make IVF more effective. Now they are trying to make it cheaper
LOUISE BROWN was conceived in a Petri dish placed under a dome-shaped glass jar that looks a bit like an old-fashioned cake dish. She was the first baby created by in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Today’s IVF babies are made in fancy laboratories where computers monitor the temperature, sterility and a finely tuned mix of medical-grade gases. Sophisticated techniques, such as testing embryos for genetic diseases, promise hopeful parents a greater chance of a healthy baby.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “An arm and a leg for a fertilised egg”
Briefing August 27th 2016
From the August 27th 2016 edition
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