China's fourth-generation test tube baby born in Wuhan
(Beijing Time) Friday, February 27, 2004

China's only baby born out of the fourth-generation test tube baby technology, and probably the last one, was born at 9:30 am, Feb. 24, 2004 in People's Hospital of Wuhai University in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

The nine-year couple concerned have had no baby despite going through specialized hospitals for curing sterility in Beijing and Shanghai etc. The wife was tested low-quality ova at the Center for Reproductive Medicine under the People's Hospital of Wuhan University in May 2003. The expert group of the center injected fresh archiblast into the ovum cells of the wife and make them unite with the husband's sperms for birth-giving.

As expert introduced, since the archiblast moved was only nutritional substance without genetic element, the baby born out of the fourth-generation test tube technology is still the son of the couple themselves.

Report says the nation's authority concerned issued in October 2003 ban practice on the fourth-generation test tube babies as the social ethics is taken into consideration. Since the woman conceived the baby before the release of the ban, the baby is not illegal though it is the only case throughout the country and perhaps the last one.

The first generation test-tube babies, first born in Britain on July 25, 1978, were created by extracting mature egg cells from a woman and putting them into nutrient liquid. The semen taken from the husband is also put into the nutrient liquid to germinate the ovum.

The second generation involved injecting a man's semen into theovum of the woman with a needlepoint and then putting the fertilized ovum into the womb.

The technology of the third generation applies to couples who both have genetic diseases. After careful genetic examination on the fertilized ovum of a couple, surgeons implant the healthy fertilized ovum into the womb.

By People's Daily Online