Thirty years of IVF

This paper captures the essence of a session of the Association of Clinical Embryologists' meeting held in Manchester in January 2008. This session was of special significance, since this year marks thirty years since the birth of Louise Brown -- the world's first IVF baby -- at Oldham General Hospital on 25 July 1978. Her birth was a turning point in world history, and launched a new era of scientific, ethical and clinical challenge and discovery, which is as fresh today as it was then. The session focused on historical events and the social climate in which they took place, as well as notable changes in the intervening years, heard from the mouths of those best able to interpret their significance. This paper places the speakers' contributions in context with contemporary and more recent events.