Mason Andrews; delivered first in vitro baby in US
WASHINGTON -- Mason Andrews, the physician who delivered the nation's first in vitro baby in the small Eastern Virginia hospital he founded, died Friday at his home in Norfolk, Va. He had pulmonary fibrosis and was 87.
Dr. Andrews, an obstetrician and gynecologist, had delivered about 5,000 babies in his hometown of Norfolk before delivering Elizabeth Carr by Caesarian section Dec. 28, 1981, at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
The birth of the first US ``test-tube baby" gave hope to hundreds of thousands of American couples who were unable to conceive. About 330,000 babies have since been born through in vitro fertilization in the United States, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
It did not happen without controversy. Dr. Andrews was launching the Eastern Virginia Medical School when he invited Drs. Howard and Georgeanna Jones, who were retiring from Johns Hopkins University's Laboratory of Reproductive Physiology, to teach. Upon their arrival in July 1978, the world's first in vitro baby, Louise Brown, was born in England. A reporter asked whether the feat could be done at Norfolk.
``I don't see why not," one of the physicians replied.
Dr. Andrews said he did not plan to set up an in vitro fertilization clinic. But while other physicians and hospitals dependent on federal funding waited for approval from the federal government to do just that, the privately funded Norfolk clinic moved forward.
``Peculiarly, that doesn't take much money, because the people who use [the service] pay their own way," Andrews told the
At a hearing for a state certificate of need, required when a hospital attempts a new procedure, opponents came out in force. Led by antiabortion activists and fundamentalist preachers, opponents battled to prevent the clinic from opening, fearing researchers would experiment with or discard embryos.
Picket lines went up, even as hundreds of phone calls and letters poured in from desperate couples who wanted to be the clinic's first patients.
Throughout it all, Dr. Andrews, the courtly son and grandson of Norfolk physicians, spoke for the clinic.
``The real judgment society has to make," he said in 1980, after the hospital won the certificate, ``is when something that's objectionable to a segment of society should be kept from the rest of society."
After 30 unsuccessful tries, the Joneses shepherded the fertilization of a human egg to birth. Using fertility-inducing drugs, which made the 28-year-old patient, Judith Carr, ovulate at a fixed time, the doctors ``caught" the egg cells with a long, telescope-like instrument and placed them in a petri dish with Carr's husband's sperm. The resulting clump of cells was then inserted into Carr's womb.
The couple's daughter, the 5-pound, 12-ounce Elizabeth, was delivered nine months later. Now known as Elizabeth Jordan Comeau, she is a newspaper reporter in Maine.
``He was like a grandparent to me," Comeau said Saturday of Dr. Andrews. ``I've known him since the day I was born -- even before that." Dr. Andrews stayed in touch with her throughout her life, said Comeau, sending her birthday cards and recently a wedding gift.
``He always teased me that I really should go into science," she said.
Howard Jones credited Dr. Andrews with integrity, character, and the ability to withstand the controversy while shielding the clinic staff.
``People who don't remember those times don't appreciate the public policy aspects he handled," Jones said. ``He was the key; he was able to handle this aspect very well while my wife and I did the biomedical aspect."
Born in Norfolk, Andrews graduated from Princeton University in 1940 and received a medical degree from Johns Hopkins in 1943.
A veteran of the Navy, Dr. Andrews was elected to the Norfolk City Council in 1974. He was mayor of Norfolk from 1992 to 1994 and was credited with being a key factor in the revival of the city's downtown.
