The movie is a dramatization, so some forgiveness is necessary. But I object to some of the scientific inaccuracies, and especially the slandering of the character of Jean Purdy. How do I know this? Because I am the last living member of the original 'team' that developed human IVF. Jean Purdy, Patrick Steptoe and Bob Edwards are all deceased. Bob and I succeeded in demonstrating the first human IVF (in his lab) in 1968; everything else shown in the movie followed that. So, I am very familiar with the succeeding events that led to the birth of Louise Brown in 1978. Yet, the movie makers did not bother to contact me to check for inaccuracies in their film. That is not hubris - I am a scientist and detest false information.
Jean Purdy was my friend and colleague; I regard her as a heroine who devoted her short life to the alleviation of infertility. So, I am especially outraged at her portrayal in the movie as a woman who 'slept around but couldn't get pregnant herself' as she is shown telling her mum. On the contrary, Jeannie was a devout Christian who told me that she was 'saving herself for marriage.' The movie's depiction of her intimate relationship with a fellow lab researcher 'Arun' is, to the best of my knowledge, pure fiction, designed to enrich the narrative, and in that case, it is slanderous.
When Bob Edwards was ready to give up on the 'impossible' goal of human IVF in the mid 1970's, it was Jean Purdy who persuaded him, and Steptoe, to continue, and it was she who located Bourn Hall UK as the site of the world's first IVF clinic. Most likely, the parents of the estimated 20 million IVF babies now born worldwide have no idea how much they owe to Jean Purdy. This movie does not do justice to her dedication and service to humanity. I wish the movie-makers had done more research before they produced this inaccurate portrayal of her role. I would have been glad to set them straight, for Jeannie's sake at least.
RIP, Jeannie: 'The World's First IVF Embryologist' (on her tombstone in Grantchester, Cambridge, UK)
Barry Bavister Ph. D. Cambridge University, 1972.
