Making babies, the hard way

摘要

Doctors at the Hammersmith Hospital in west London have been carrying out in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for more than two decades. Lord Winston, Britain's best-known fertility specialist, writes of the hand-to-mouth early days, when patients were counselled in a disused broom cupboard and research was done in derelict huts. The desperate pioneers willing to try anything to have a baby were treated free, subsidised by Lord Winston's private surgical practice. All decisions were made by the patient and doctor alone.