Send to a friend

The details you provide on this page will not be used to send unsolicited email, and will not be sold to a 3rd party. See privacy policy.

A woman has given birth to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s first ever test-tube baby.

Emmanuel, a healthy baby boy born seven weeks ago in the Kinshasa hospital, is one of only a handful of children in sub-Saharan Africa to have been created by in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

The technique — which involves taking an egg from a woman, fertilising it in the laboratory and then placing it in the woman’s womb — was first developed in Britain in the 1970s as a way of tackling infertility. But ethical concerns and the high costs of the technique have limited its uptake in many poor countries.

© SciDev.Net 2002

Link to BBC news story