http://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/04/us/infertile-woman-has-baby-through-embryo-transfer.html?sec=health
INFERTILE WOMAN HAS BABY THROUGH EMBRYO TRANSFER
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Published: February 4, 1984
photo of the infant born to an infertile woman
The birth of the first baby conceived in one woman's womb and carried to birth in another's without the use of ''test tube'' fertilization was announced here today by a team of California physicians.
The baby, a boy born about two weeks ago, ''is just beautiful,'' said the team leader, Dr. John E. Buster of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine. He described the embryo transfer technique, long used in cattle but just now applied to humans, at a news conference at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. The technique does not require surgery, anesthetic or test tube fertilization of the egg, Dr. Buster said. A report of the birth appears in today's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
In the procedure, an embryo that was just beginning to develop was transferred from one woman in whom it had been conceived by artificial insemination to another woman who gave birth to the infant 38 weeks later. The sperm used in the artificial insemination came from the husband of the woman who bore the baby.
Dr. Buster said the technique was different from ''test tube'' fertilization, which involves surgical removal of an unfertilized egg from a woman, fertilization of the egg in a laboratory dish, and implantation of the fertilized egg into the womb.
Technique Is Described
Australian researchers last month reported the first successful birth in which an egg donated by one woman was fertilized and then implanted in an infertile woman. It was similar to the procedure announced today in that it used a donor's egg that had already reached the embryo stage and then was implanted in another woman. But the Australian case still required fertilization of the egg in a glass dish rather than in the donor's body.
Along with a half-dozen colleagues, Dr. Buster described the technique and his plans to establish the first ovum transfer clinic at Memorial Hospital this spring.
