(7 of 10)
The clamor had its effect. Researchers like 'Steptoe and Edwards made fewer and fewer 'public reports on their work. In the U.S., almost all research with human eggs came to an abrupt halt; under a 1975 federal order, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was barred from funding any invitro fertilization experiments unless they were first approved by a national ethics advisory board appointed by the HEW Secretary. Perhaps because it involved such a touchy subject, the panel was not formed until January of this year. One of its first orders of business: to weigh the long-pending application from a Vanderbilt University fertility researcher, Dr. Pierre Soupart. His objective: to resume tests, suspended in 1975, that are designed to show if there is any increased risk of chromosomal abnormalities when human eggs are fertilized in the test tube rather than in the body. Commenting on the delays forced upon American researchers by what is, in effect, an unofficial federal moratorium, U.C.L.A. Obstetrician Jaroslav Marik bitterly notes that "if all the pulls and pressures had not been applied, there might be an American woman now about to deliver" a test-tube baby.
Perhaps so, but the skills and know-how of the Steptoe-Edwards team are almost universally acclaimed, even if its inclination toward secrecy is not. Silver-haired and elegant, Steptoe is a pioneer in the use of laparoscopy, a technique for exploring the abdomen and observing the reproductive tract by means of a long, thin telescope equipped with a fiber optics light. He is also an impeccable dresser, enjoys watching cricket and is a fine organist. In the words of a colleague, he is "a man of character and determination who if someone is speaking nonsense is perfectly willing to say so." His partner Edwards, the father of five daughters, is no less accomplished in his own field, the physiology of fertilization, and just as dedicated. During early experiments at Cambridge, he often returned to the physiology department at night, scaled a wall, and slipped into his lab to see if fertilized eggs were still alive.