Patrick Steptoe

Patrick Steptoe
CBE FRS
Born
Patrick Christopher Steptoe

(1913-06-09)9 June 1913
Oxford, England
Died21 March 1988(1988-03-21) (aged 74)
Canterbury, England
Alma mater
He also worked at Oldham General hospital
Known forIn vitro fertilisation
Spouse
Sheena Kennedy
​
(m. 1943)​
[2]
Children2, including Andrew Steptoe[2]
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Bourn Hall Clinic

Patrick Christopher Steptoe CBE FRS[1] (9 June 1913 – 21 March 1988) was an English obstetrician and gynaecologist and a pioneer of fertility treatment. Steptoe was responsible with biologist and physiologist Robert Edwards and the nurse and embryologist Jean Purdy for developing in vitro fertilisation. Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born on 25 July 1978.[3][4] Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the development of in vitro fertilisation; Steptoe and Purdy were not eligible for consideration because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.[5]

  1. ^ a b Edwards, R. G. (1996). "Patrick Christopher Steptoe, C. B. E. 9 June 1913 – 22 March 1988". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 42: 435–52. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1996.0027. PMID 11619339.
  2. ^ a b 2007 "Steptoe, Patrick Christopher, (9 June 1913 – 21 March 1988), Director of Centre for Human Reproduction, Oldham, 1969–79; Medical Director, Bourn Hall Clinic, Bourn, Cambridgeshire, since 1980." WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 27 January 2019
  3. ^ "1978: First 'test tube baby' born". BBC. 25 July 1978. Retrieved 13 June 2009. The birth of the world's first "test tube baby" has been announced in Manchester (England). Louise Brown was born shortly before midnight in Oldham and District General Hospital
  4. ^ Moreton, Cole (14 January 2007). "World's first test-tube baby Louise Brown has a child of her own". London: Independent. Retrieved 21 May 2010. The 28-year-old, whose pioneering conception by in-vitro fertilisation made her famous around the world. The fertility specialists Patrick Steptoe and Bob Edwards became the first to successfully carry out IVF by extracting an egg, impregnating it with sperm and planting the resulting embryo back into the mother
  5. ^ "The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – Press Release". Nobelprize.org. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2010.