Louise Brown became famous before she was born. Society was outraged, the church forbade it, doctors gave it a one in a million chance, but the mother of the future Louise, who suffered from infertility, believed in the success of the experiment.
So on July 25, 1978, the world’s first child was born after an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure. “Test-tube girl,” Louise. The attention of the world was riveted to the event. The entire birth process was recorded on camera, so there was no talk of a switcheroo or any other falsification.
The girl was immediately subjected to many tests, which confirmed that the baby was born absolutely normal. The family was flooded with letters from all over the world, which were not always positive. Before school, her mother had to explain to Louise why she was called “Frankenbaby,” and she told her daughter how she was born. Although, by Louise’s own admission, the realization came to her somewhat later, when she was older.
The birth of a perfectly normal child after in-vitro fertilization gave hope to thousands of couples who could not have children. And public anger subsided rather quickly, especially when Pope John Paul I did not criticize the family, saying that they just wanted a child. However, the Catholic Church today condemns IVF.To think, it’s only been a little over forty years since the first IVF baby, and today there are over 6 million such children!
As for Louise, she is now living a normal life. Married and raising two children. Except for her crazy fame in her early years, she is no different from any other person. Except for the fact that she had to explain to her children why their mother is in the biology textbooks…