Tribute to Georgeanna and Howard Jones

This tribute is divided into three sections. The first of these is a description of six weeks of research involving Georgeanna and Howard Jones and me over a few weeks in Johns Hopkins in 1965. Initially, it describes details of preliminary work and then completion of the maturation programme of the mature human oocyte and the first serious attempts at IVF. Scientific discoveries in those exciting weeks contributed to the earliest beginnings of IVF. A second section on knowledge of the human preimplantation embryo today concentrates on the problem of poor-quality embryos and how to overcome it, and on new knowledge on the regulation of human embryonic development. Lastly, the ethics of assisted conception are debated in relation to early practice and to some international features of modern ethical adjudication. A brief conclusion describes some of the friendships initiated in Johns Hopkins and still intact today.