Agreed DD. It is incredible the number of lives this changed for the better...and yet we're supposed to celebrate someone who did exactly the opposite?? What a bizarre world we live in.
Test-tube baby pioneer Sir Robert Edwards dies The world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, has led the tributes to the pioneer of IVF, who has died aged 87. Prof Sir Robert Edwards was knighted in 2011, five decades after he began experimenting with IVF. His work led to the birth of Ms Brown at Oldham General Hospital in 1978. She said he had brought "happiness and joy" to millions of people. IVF is used worldwide and has resulted in more than five million babies. Prof Edwards died in his sleep after a long illness. Ms Brown said: "I have always regarded Robert Edwards as like a grandfather to me. "His work, along with Patrick Steptoe, has brought happiness and joy to millions of people all over the world by enabling them to have children. "I am glad that he lived long enough to be recognised with a Nobel prize for his work, and his legacy will live on with all the IVF work being carried out throughout the world."
He deserves a lot of credit, what he's managed to do was very clever. I would still reserve the most praise for scientists curing diseases though. The sooner that this country realises being childless is NOT a disease the better - I fail to see how women up to 40 getting IVF at the taxpayers expense is justifiable - having a child isn't an entitlement nor is being childless a disease.
"The sooner that this country realises being childless is NOT a disease the better - I fail to see how women up to 40 getting IVF at the taxpayers expense is justifiable - having a child isn't an entitlement nor is being childless a disease." Agree with you re 40 year-olds (not always childless either), and as my late mother used to say "what do they expect if they're on the pill for 24 years?". Got to say though, infertility is not just about that, and as I've said on another thread, if you're denying treatment to some over conditions you don't agree with there's an argument that ALL treatment, in a strictly darwinian sense, is counter-productive. Certainly a good argument to stop all treatment with antibiotics, unless it's a life ofr death situation that affects me or mine....
Not at 40, no, but our western quest for a hedonistic life, means more and more are not having any kids, or just 1. They say a culture needs a birth rate of 2.54 to survive, and higher to grow, in the UK our birth rate is 1.56, which is lower than the inevitable extinction rate of 1.76. So the British culture will be extinct by the next millennium. This is why many muslims don't feel any need for aggression against the west, they know we are making ourselves extinct, and all of Europe will be Muslim in a couple of hundred years. No need for bombs and bullets. So we need people to be having kids, and lots of them, rather than 3 holidays and 2 cars a year.
