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IVF Pioneer Dies at 104

Surgeon Howard Jones died July 31^st

The Jones’ milestone came three years after the arrival of Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube” baby, who was born in England. Awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for development of IVF, British scientist Robert Edwards largely credited the Joneses for this major achievement. Edwards had worked with the Joneses in the 1960s when they were on faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

In his early years at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Jones also developed a technique for prompting the development of multiple eggs in women.

Jones and his wife became highly respected spokespeople for reproductive medicine. To help guide this new specialty, he helped create an ethics committee under the American Fertility Center—now the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. In later years, he also campaigned to expand insurance coverage for IVF. Before his death, an estimated 5 million babies would be born following IVF, thanks to the pioneering efforts of physicians such as him.

Jones is also well known as a skilled surgeon, researcher, teacher, and writer. He wrote 12 books, including In Vitro Fertilization Comes to America: Memoir of a Medical Breakthrough.

Despite the many firsts we at PFC are proud of, today is a day to remember a giant whose shoulders we all stand on.

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