A stimulating record chartering the history and pioneers of in-vitro fertilization, forty years after the birth of the first baby.

1. A brief outline of the history of human in-vitro fertilization John D. Biggers and Catherine Racowsky; 2. The track to assisted reproduction: from animal to human in-vitro fertilization Jacques Cohen; 3. The American roots of in-vitro fertilization Frederick Naftolin, Jennifer Blakemore and David L. Keefe; 4. The story of Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards, Jean Purdy, and Bourn Hall Clinic Peter R. Brinsden; 5. Professional hostility confronting Edwards, Steptoe, and Purdy in their pioneering work on in-vitro fertilization Martin H. Johnson; 6. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Australia Alex Lopata and Gabor Kovacs; 7. The Joneses and the Jones Institute Charles C. Coddington, III and Sergio C. Oehninger; 8. The development of in-vitro fertilization in North America after the Joneses Matthew Connell and Alan H. DeCherney; 9. The Brussels story and the eureka moment of intracytoplasmic sperm injection Andre Van Steirteghem; 10. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Austria Wilfried Feichtinger; 11. The development of in-vitro fertilization in France Rene F. Frydman; 12. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Italy Luca Gianaroli, Serena Sgargi, Maria Cristina Magli and Anna Pia Ferraretti; 13. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Scandinavia Lars Hamberger, Torbjorn Hillensjo and Matts Wikland; 14. The Development of In-Vitro Fertilization in Spain Antonio Pellicer; 15. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Greece, Germany, and The Netherlands Basil C. Tarlatzis, Klaus Diedrich and Bart Fauser; 16. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Israel Zion Ben-Rafael; 17. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Latin America Fernando Zegers-Hochschild; 18. The development of in-vitro fertilization in India Rina Agrawal and Elizabeth Burt; 19. The development of in-vitro fertilization in China Daimin Wei, Jianfeng Wang, Yingying Qin and Zi-Jiang Chen; 20. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Africa Willem Ombelet; 21. The development of in-vitro fertilization in Russia Vladislav Korsak and Anatoly Nikitin; 22. The application of in-vitro fertilization in the management of the infertile male David M. de Kretser; 23. The development of preimplantation genetic diagnosis for monogenic disease and chromosome inbalance Leeanda Wilton; 24. The development of embryo, oocyte, and ovarian tissue cryopreservation Debra A. Gook and David H. Edgar; 25. The development of ovarian stimulation for in-vitro fertilization Colin M. Howles; 26. The development of microsurgery for male and female infertility Sherman J. Silber; 27. The application of embryonic stem cells for in-vitro fertilization Ariff Bongso; 28. The regulation and legislation of in-vitro fertilization Louis Waller and Sandra Dill; 29. Research on assisted reproduction families: a historical perspective Susan Golombok; 30. The commercialization of in-vitro fertilization G. David Adamson and Anthony J. Rutherford.