Louise Joy Brown
Born 25 July 1978 (age 38)
Oldham General Hospital, Oldham, England
Known for First in-vitro baby
Weight 5 lb 12 oz (2.608 kg) at birth
Spouse(s) Wesley Mullinder (2004–present)
Children 2 sons, Cameron (born 20 December 2006); Aiden (born August 2013)
Family Lesley and John Brown (parents)
Natalie Brown (sister)
Louise Brown, the world’s first “test-tube” baby
Louise Brown, the world's first test-tube baby, has spoken for the first time about the "sick" blood-splattered hate mail her parents received after her ground-breaking birth.
Miss Brown, 36, was born at Oldham General Hospital on July 25 1978 after her parents Lesley and John became the first people to successfully undergo in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Her birth attracted controversy, with religious leaders expressing concern about the use of artificial intervention and some raising fears that science was creating "Frankenbabies", but also paved the way for millions of women to undergo IVF.
Ms Brown has described how the news provoked revulsion among some members of the public and the bitter hate campaign launched against her parents, John and Lesley Brown.
In her autobiography, published next month, she reveals that her family received post-bags full of mail, including one package containing letters covered in red liquid, a broken glass test tube and a plastic foetus, accompanied by menacing notes.
Louise Brown was born at Oldham General Hospital, Oldham, by planned Caesarean section delivered by registrar John Webster. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years. Lesley faced complications of blocked fallopian tubes.
On 10 November 1977, Lesley Brown underwent a procedure, later to become known as IVF (in vitro fertillisation), developed by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards. Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work. Although the media referred to Brown as a "test tube baby", her conception actually took place in a petri dish. Her younger sister, Natalie Brown, was also conceived through IVF four years later, and became the world's fortieth IVF baby. In May 1999, Natalie was the first IVF baby to give birth herself—without IVF—to daughter Casey. Natalie has subsequently had three additional children; sons Christopher, Daniel, and Aeron, the last of whom was born in August 2013.
In 2004, Brown married nightclub doorman (bouncer) Wesley Mullinder. Dr. Edwards attended their wedding.Their son Cameron, conceived naturally, was born on 20 December 2006. Brown's second son, Aiden Patrick Robert, was born in August 2013.
Brown's father died in 2007. Her mother died on 6 June 2012 in Bristol Royal Infirmary at the age of 64[8] due to complications from a gallbladder infection.
ETHICAL and RELIGIOUS ISSUE
COMMENT OF JOHN PAUL 1
Although the Browns knew the procedure was experimental, the doctors did not tell them that no case had yet resulted in a baby. This has raised questions of informed consent
Shortly before the death of Pope Paul VI, when asked for his reaction to Brown's birth, the patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Albino Luciani (later Pope John Paul I), expressed concerns about the possibility that artificial insemination could lead to women being used as "baby factories", but also refused to condemn the parents of the child,noting they simply wanted to have a baby.