Breakthrough Babies

Simon Fishel

Description

An account from the frontline of fertility treatment, giving a unique insight into not only the medical and scientific advances involved but the human cost and rewards behind this life-changing technology.

Simon Fishel worked with Robert Edwards during his pioneering early IVF research and was part of the team in the world’s first IVF clinic, with all the trials and tribulations that involved at the time, including a writ for murder!

As the science developed over the decades so did his career, as he sought to do more for patients and taught the new technologies to doctors all over the world. He came up against regulatory and establishment barriers, including fighting a 3-year legal case in the High Court of Justice and a death threat from a doctor if he refused to work with him.

The clinic he founded has grown into the largest IVF group in the UK, developing exciting new procedures, and he has helped establish clinics throughout the world, even being invited to introduce IVF to China.

List of Figures

Foreword

Special Note

1. Nobody Said It Would Be Easy

2. Bourn Hall: The World’s First IVF Clinic

1980–1985

3. Beginnings

1953–1980

4. Nottingham to Rome and Back

1985–1991

5. The Nurture Years

1991–1997

6. Bankruptcy Looms

1997–2001

7. CARE: The Battle for Miracles Continues

1997–Present

8. The DNA of IVF

9. The Legacy of IVF

About the Author .

Acknowledgements

Sujets

• Médecine
• Gynécologie et Obstétrique
• DNA
• Baby
• Inventaire des voies de communication historiques de la Suisse
• Technology
• In vitro fertilisation
• Infertility
• Parenthood
• Reproductive medicine
• Ácido desoxirribonucleico
• Medical

Informations

• Publié par: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Date de parution: 14 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781788600781
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

First published in Great Britain by Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2019
© Simon Fishel, 2019
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
ISBN 978-1-78860-073-6
All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
Back panel illustration: ‘Our Identity’ by Christopher Vidal, artist and erstwhile medical student. © Christopher Vidal, used with permission. The painting ‘represents us as humanity being one species sharing a common genome that only differs slightly from one population to the other creating all the variability.’ www.christopher-vidal.com.au
In loving memory of Devra Grugel (Cohen), whose love of life and unique positivity for the world around her was taken from us far too early. Her memory and the paths she lit for so many will forever burn brightly in our hearts.
Contents
List of Figures
Foreword
Special Note
1. Nobody Said It Would Be Easy
2. Bourn Hall: The World’s First IVF Clinic
1980–1985
3. Beginnings
1953–1980
4. Nottingham to Rome and Back
1985–1991
5. The Nurture Years
1991–1997
6. Bankruptcy Looms
1997–2001
7. CARE: The Battle for Miracles Continues
1997–Present
8. The DNA of IVF
9. The Legacy of IVF
About the Author
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Figure 2.1: Wall plaque at Dr Kershaw’s Hospice in Oldham
Figure 2.2: Bourn Hall Clinic
Figure 2.3: Bourn Hall world first IVF conference 1981
Figure 2.4: Plaque on the wall of the Physiology department at Cambridge University
Figure 2.5: IVF: Past, Present and Future (1986)
Figure 4.1: Early days at the Park. ( Top ) Me, John Webster, Peter Jackson ( Bottom left to right ) Sue Quickmire (Nurse Manager), Bahman Faratian (Assistant Medical Director), Heather Palmer (John’s PA)
Figure 4.2: The Chinese and European team that performed some of the first IVF cycles in China in early 1987. Bottom row from left : Simon Fishel (UK), Matts Wikland (Sweden), Chau Billian (China), Karl Gustav Nygren (Sweden), Lars Marsk (Sweden)
Figure 4.3: Needles for sperm injection with single strand of human hair above
Figure 4.4: Maria Russo
Figure 4.5: Meeting Renato Dulbecco, 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner at the Fregene Awards
Figure 4.6: The Ooi twins as babies
Figure 4.7: The Ooi twins as young men
Figure 5.1: ‘Meet James the First’, Daily Mail , 7 September 1992
Figure 5.2: John Webster and me at the opening of John Webster House, CARE, 2016
Figure 7.1: The case against delaying three-parent babies, The Times , 24 February 2005
Figure 7.2: ‘Boy born to save his big sister’, Daily Mail , 22 December 2010
Figure 7.3: Megan kisses Max
Figure 8.1: ‘Fertility hope for boys who survive cancer’, The Times , 12 September 1997
Figure 8.2: Baby Oliver
Foreword
The ‘beacon of triumph’ that Louise Brown’s birth represented as the first test tube baby set a pattern for media coverage of the revolution in human reproduction for the next forty years. Her arrival led a world exclusive on the front page of the Daily Mail on 25 July 1978, where she was billed as ‘the lovely Louise’, and was unequivocally a turning point for childless couples. She burst through a wall of secrecy that surrounded the research, rightly so given the opposition from some in the medical establishment that marked not just the early days of technical achievements in fertility treatment, but the heated debates over the ethics and regulation that would follow.
The drama and controversies were a gift to journalists. Not only did we have the excitement of fast-moving scientific innovation but the narrative of hopelessness behind the human stories which were the heart of the matter. Simon Fishel’s memoirs give us a first-hand account of a medical science pioneer in at the start – his remarkable contribution began with research in the field before Louise Brown was born – and he has yet to complete the journey. He has unfinished business to do in transforming women’s lives after the menopause which may even extend their childbearing potential. Yet the vital element throughout is his understanding and empathy with the pioneering patients who took the risks along with the scientists.
Fishel’s belief is that ‘every baby is a miracle’ in fertility treatment. It’s also compelling copy for the media as shown by the tenor of coverage during the first twenty years of IVF milestones. Journalists were competing with each other for the next first birth occurring after the slightest advance in an esoteric technique. Broadly speaking, these were good news stories but with the spice of doom-laden warnings from critics that doctors were ‘playing God’. The hostile environment created by acknowledged dilemmas and personal rivalries was a fascinating backdrop, but nothing that would get in the way of a good story. The public appetite for the joy of lives transformed by scientists who admitted they were working in the dark was insatiable. The paradox that dogged IVF research – proving a technique was safe in humans before using it – may have kept doctors awake at night. But it took centre stage for reporters only when the regulators, lawyers and ethicists formulated rules that stood in the way of the hopes and dreams of people prepared to do anything to have a baby.
Fishel’s driving force has always been to ‘work at the limits of what’s possible’. It’s no wonder the media responded to his willingness to seize the window of opportunity and circumvent the hasty erection of barriers to human endeavour. I remember writing the splash in the Daily Mail on 7 September 1992 which invited readers to ‘Meet James the First’. Once again, Fishel had pushed the cutting edge of IVF treatment to the maximum for people who had run out of hope. His rollercoaster ride through forty years of scientific advances provides a microcosm of a revolution in human conception taking place in laboratories, hospitals, and universities around the world. Yet at the same time he was battling demons that could have taken him down, from the threat of bankruptcy to having a gun held to his head by a maverick colleague, with a resilience that is genuinely admirable.
The quest for perfect embryos inevitably escalated into ethical and legal controversies over what some regarded as the ultimate destination – perfect people. The media relished the new challenge, far more than the desperate individuals caught up in personal tragedies played out on the public stage. Many of these stories ended in despair. At the same time IVF was re-defining family life at a pace that seems even more breath-taking looking back. The social acceptance of the implications of a procession of technical acronyms such as SUZI, ICSI, PGD, CGH, has accompanied a broad tolerance of the means to end the misery of infertility which went on to embrace much wider issues such as the sex selection of embryos. As head of CARE, the largest IVF group in the UK, Fishel can rightly claim to be in the vanguard of a global movement that’s led to the birth of eight million IVF babies so far. But the story doesn’t end here for him or the media. Science has reached a point in human history where medical intervention is more efficient than nature in human conception. But it is also inextricably bound into the threads of advances in DNA technology that made possible the cloning of Dolly the sheep and could even result in predictably reliable human cloning. It’s a legacy to ponder.
Jenny Hope Award-winning journalist 1
Special Note
When I was born in 1978, the impact was felt all around the world. Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe had achieved the success they had been craving for many years. For my mum Lesley and dad John, it was the dream ending to a struggle to have a child that had lasted almost ten years. IVF had worked at the first try for Mum and she just wanted to go home and enjoy her baby. She could not have imagined at that moment how Assisted Reproductive Technology would develop to what we see today.
Soon Edwards and Steptoe had established the first IVF clinic, Bourn Hall, near Cambridge. My mum had her second treatment there and it worked first time again – bringing my sister Natalie into the world. She was only the fortieth IVF baby in the world, and Simon Fishel was part of the team that created her.
I enjoyed many happy hours at Bourn Hall as a child, meeting the ever-growing IVF family which is now in the millions and spread worldwide. I saw first-hand how Simon, and others like him, continued to push the boundaries and develop new techniques so that today more and more people can find a solution to their fertility problems. It is only by having pioneers that medical science can progress.
We need good regulation of fertility treatment but above all we need to have trust in the doctors working on taking fertility treatment to new levels. They need the freedom to try out new things – as Bob Edwards did to create me. I hope that by reading this story others are inspired to push the boundaries. Long may Simon Fishel continue with his work.
Louise Brown, The world’s first ‘test tube baby’
Chapter 1
Nobody Said It Would Be Easy
‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to conceive.’ Don Herold, US humourist
It was my son Matt’s first day at school many years ago, and his teacher gathered her apprehensive pupils around her. ‘Let’s get to know each other’, she said. ‘What do your mums and dads do for a living?’ A forest of eager hands shot up. When it came to Matt’s turn, his answer was obvious.
My dad makes babies.
He was right. As an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) practitioner, researcher,