[The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2010].

Infertility is often caused by the failure of sperm and eggs to meet in the natural way. In the early 1960s, Edwards decided to try to develop a method for fertilising human eggs outside the body and only then returning them to the woman. This visionary research project ran into resistance from the establishment, since it raised questions about the beginnings of life and the natural limitations of humans. At an early stage, Edwards thus initiated an ethical debate about in vitro fertilisation − a debate that helped this method to become generally accepted over time.