On July 25, 1978, the world's first test-tube baby was delivered by Caesarian section at Oldham General Hospital in Oldham, England. The parents of the healthy five-pound, 12-ounce baby girl were 32-year-old Lesley Brown of Bristol and her 38-year-old husband, John. Previously, the couple had been trying to conceive for over a decade but were unsuccessful because Lesley had defective fallopian tubes. British medical researchers Patrick Steptoe and R.G. Edwards were able to surmount this problem by extracting an egg from Lesley's uterus and then fertilizing it with her husband's sperm in a special nutrient in a glass dish. Once the fertilized egg began to divide it was then reinserted into Lesley's uterus, where it attached itself to the uterine wall and normal pregnancy began. The baby--eventually named Louise--was delivered by Caesarian section nine days early because Dr. Steptoe detected a slight toxemia in Mrs. Brown that might have led to a stillbirth. This problem was not...