PROFESSOR SIR ROBERT EDWARDS,  1925 - 2013.

Seine Erfindung veränderte die Welt. Mit der ersten erfolgreichen assistierten  Befruchtung, die 1978 zur Geburt von Lousie Brown führte, erfüllte Robert Edwards geschätzen 5 Millionen Menschen den Wunsch nach leiblichen Kindern. Der Pionier der künstlichen Befruchtung, der 2010 für seine Forschungen den Nobelpreis für Medizin erhielt, ist am 10. April gestorben.

Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Reproduktionsmedizin trauert um den bedeutenden IVF-Pionier.

Professor Edwards war 1984 auch Mitbegründer der Europäischen Gesellschaft für Reproduktionsmedizin (ESHRE), deren Stellungnahme wir hier veröffentlichen:

The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology comments on the death of Professor Sir Robert Edwards

It was with great sadness that ESHRE learned of the death of Professor Sir Robert Edwards. It was him, along with the French gynaecologist Jean Cohen, who founded the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in 1984, and shaped it to become one of the world's leading societies in reproductive science and medicine. In 1986 Robert Edwards as editor launched the society's journal Human Reproduction, which since then has become such an important and much cited reference of developments in our field.

Anna Veiga, chairman of ESHRE, said: "Bob was a tireless and inspirational leader in reproductive medicine, and it's fair to say that the infertility treatments we have today would not have been developed without his direction. It was also Bob who laid down the statutes which govern ESHRE's organisation and define its constitution today. We will remember him for many reasons, but mostly for his sympathetic ear, his constant encouragement and of course his remarkable achievements in human biology. Without Bob's scientific foresight and care for the infertile couple, the treatments of assisted reproduction would never have gained the universal acceptance they have today.

"It was a token of that care and foresight that Bob was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2010, a final recognition that his pioneering work in human infertility had changed the lives of so many people. Calculations made last year indicated that there are now 5 million IVF babies in the world, and they each reflect the sacrifices he made to establish IVF as a legitimate treatment in world medicine. He will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues at ESHRE, and by the many clinicians and scientists around the world who found their own inspiration in his pioneering work. ESHRE joins many others in expressing its deepest condolences to his family.