By MALCOLM RITTER and KARL RITTER
Associated Press Writers
NEW YORK – The Nobel Prize in medicine went to a man whose work led to the first test tube baby, an achievement that helped bring 4 million infants into the world and raised challenging new questions about human reproduction.
Robert Edwards of Britain, now an 85-year-old professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, lived to see the far-reaching ramifications of his hugely controversial early research.
“Today, Robert Edwards’ vision is a reality and brings joy to infertile people all over the world,” the Nobel Committee said in Stockholm. It began with the birth on July 25, 1978, of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, to a couple who had been trying to conceive for nine years.