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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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National Health Stories

Documentaries

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: History

Sally Sheard on the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

On 5 July 1948, healthcare in Britain became free for all. Sally Sheard reveals the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

On 5 July 1948, for the first time anywhere in the world, healthcare in Britain became free for all. Sally Sheard reveals the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

BBC Radio 4 LW

National Health Stories: Cradle

Remedies of War

04/07/2018

Cradle

BBC Radio 4 - National Health Stories, Cradle

How the NHS responded to the birth of the first test tube baby in 1978.

In 1978, Louise Brown became the first IVF baby. This success lead to ethical dilemmas: how to limit multiple births, like the Walton sextuplets. And should IVF be free on the NHS?

In a series tracing the decisive moments in the life of our National Health Service, historian Sally Sheard looks at the arrival of the babies people never expected to see - conceived outside the human body - the miracle of IVF births.

The NHS thrives on innovation, but sometimes it needs a more personal determination to keep going in the face of years of multiple set-backs. Both doctors and women looked in vain during the 1960s and 70s for a solution to infertility. Finally in 1978 Patrick Steptoe and Bob Edwards made the key breakthrough, and Louise Brown became the first of thousands of IVF babies. Their success meant that by the 1980s there were ethical dilemmas: how to limit multiple births, like the Walton sextuplets, and whether IVF treatment was a valid part of a National Health Service.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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