His firm belief has always been that "the most important thing in life is having a baby, because nothing is more special than a child". Robert Edwards has worked all his life to fulfill the desire of millions of people to become parents. He is the father of in vitro fertilization and he won, 40 years after that day, the Nobel Prize for medicine.
When nobody
thought it was possible, Edwards understood that fertilization outside the
human body could be a new method to treat infertility. In 1968, the researcher created the first human embryo
outside the womb, but only in 1978 comes the most important moment for
his research: the birth of Louise Brown, first test tube baby in the
world.
Since 1978, four million children were born in this way and in-vitro fertilization has become a very common practice in many countries around the world.
The controversy, however, were never turned off and Edwards, together
with Patrick Steptoe, the researcher who helped him, has repeatedly
defended his work. Edwards was never intimidated and always replied that "the allegations of the clergy are completely wrong" .
Edwards has also participated in other important
battles as well as for test-tube fertilization, such as stem cell
research. On the occasion of a visit to Italy, Edwards said: "I think it is very important to know all the enormous potential of stem cells. Unfortunately many people do not understand it and many of these are politicians."
The Italian political world, as Edwards said, did not understand it, that's why they passed a very controversial law on artificial insemination, Law 40, that has frequently been called into question by subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court. The law, among other controversial issues, requires the
implantation on the woman of all embryos that were fertilized in vitro,
greatly increasing the rate of triplet or twins pregnancies.
For this reason the Italian scientific community has welcomed the awarding of this Nobel Prize, emphasizing the contribution of Edwards to the ethical issue. Italian scientists hope that this recognition will lead to reflect on the limits of the Law 40. Limitations that once again shows how our country is not a civilian one. Otherwise, for example, once adopted such a
law the people would go to mass in the referendum of June 2005 to
abolish the controversial points. Instead, the quorum was not reached, probably because of the invitation to abstain made by the Church.
Marianna Lepore
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