Louise Brown, the first person in the world to be born through IVF techniques, has told how delighted she is that same sex couples are now able to complete their families through science.
Louise, who was known as the world’s first test-tube baby, says her family faced huge prejudice from those against the technique when she was born in July 1978.
She said: “It is fantastic to now live in a world where so many countries accept same sex relationships and marriage. Even more important is turning those relationships into families and for many same sex couples IVF enables that to happen.
“When I was young my parents took me on a tour of the USA and we appeared on the Donahue show. The first person to ask a questions in the audience said how she feared the technique could be used for two women to have babies.
“Thankfully the world has moved on and I’m proud that my birth was the catalyst for change and now there is a realistic way for same sex couples, both men and women, to have children that have a biological link to themselves.”
In her book just published Louise Brown: My Life As The World’s First Test Tube Baby (Bristol Books £18.99) Louise tells of the religious and moral outrage at her birth and how things have changed during her life.
Now, aged 37, she has had two children of her own naturally with her husband Wesley, and she says it was having her own children that brought home to her the importance of her own birth.
She said: “I really feel for all those couples who can’t conceive naturally and complete their families with children. Because of my birth I have met a lot of people who have gone through IVF. For same sex couples that is a norm, so in many ways those who have made so much effort to have children have demonstrated they really want them and they really love them.
“The IVF community has been fantastic at embracing change and IVF clinics worldwide have moved quickly to help those in a loving relationships have the children they so desire. Things are so different to the 1970s when Mum and Dad were willing to push back the boundaries of science to have a baby.”
Louise, who lives in Bristol, UK, said: “The moral issues thrown up by my birth are still there, although the arguments have changes so much oiver the years. People’s attitudes have changed incredibly and the laws have changed with them.
“It was unthinkable when I was born for gay couples to marry and have children. Now by using IVF, sperm donation or a surrogate mother those can complete their family with children.”
Louise Brown’s autobiography is published in hardback and is available from Amazon
