Repository logo
 

Looking into the Test Tube: The Birth of IVF on British Television.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Abstract

The birth of Louise Brown, the world's first 'test-tube baby', has come to signify the moment at which technologically assisted human reproduction became a re ality. This was a highly mediated and visible reality, as this article explores through the example of a British television documentary about Louise Brown broadcast when she was just six weeks old, 'To Mrs Brown… A Daughter' (Thames Television, 1978). In the article, I discuss the programme alongside data from an interview with its producer, Peter Williams. Williams sought to convince the public that IVF was morally acceptable and to cultivate sympathy for the infertile through this film. I will consider how he went about this by focusing on the programme's visual presentation of Louise Brown, Peter Williams' aims in making the film and his sympathetic relationship with the 'pioneers' of IVF, gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and physiologist Robert Edwards. I will conclude with a discussion of the political implications of this film and how it contributed to the normalisation of IVF at a pivotal moment in its history.

Description

Keywords

1970s, Britain, IVF, Louise Brown, Science communication, Television, Female, Fertilization in Vitro, History, 20th Century, Humans, Mass Media, Public Opinion, Television, United Kingdom

Journal Title

Med Hist

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0025-7273
2048-8343

Volume Title

63

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (100606/Z/12/Z)
Wellcome Trust grant number 100606