The age of the test-tube baby is fast developing. Already science has produced an array of artificial methods for creating life, offering solutions to the growing problem of infertility. In these stories, TIME explores the startling techniques, from laboratory conception to surrogate mothers, and examines the complex legal and ethical issues they raise.
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A group of women sit quietly chatting, their heads bowed over needlepoint and knitting, in the gracious parlor at Bourn Hall. The mansion's carved stone mantelpieces, rich wood paneling and crystal chandeliers give it an air of grandeur, a reflection of the days when it was the seat of the Earl De La Warr. In the well-kept gardens behind the house, Indian women in brilliant saris float on the arms of their husbands. The verdant meadows of Cambridgeshire lie serenely in the distance. To the casual observer, this stately home could be an elegant British country hotel. For the women and their husbands, however, it is a last resort.
Each has come to the Bourn Hall clinic to make a final stand against a cruel and unyielding enemy: infertility. They have come from around the globe to be treated by the world-renowned team of Obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and Reproductive Physiologist Robert Edwards, the men responsible for the birth of the world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978. Many of the patients have spent more than a decade trying to conceive a child, undergoing tests and surgery and taking fertility drugs. Most have waited more than a year just to be admitted to the clinic. Some have mortgaged their homes, sold their cars or borrowed from relatives to scrape together the $3,510 fee for foreign visitors to be treated at Bourn Hall (British citizens pay $2,340). All are brimming over with hope that their prayers will be answered by in-vitro fertilization (IVF), the mating of egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. "They depend on Mr. Steptoe utterly," observes the husband of one patient. "Knowing him is like dying and being a friend of St. Peter's."
In the six years that have passed since the birth of Louise Brown, some 700 test-tube babies have been born as a result of the work done at Bourn Hall and the approximately 200 other IVF clinics that have sprung up around the world. By year's end there will be about 1,000 such infants. Among their number are 56 pairs of test-tube twins, eight sets of triplets and two sets of quads.