Since the first trials on humans, studies Edwards aroused strong opposition d fter having been able to successfully fertilize eggs taken from some women, the Medical Research Council decided not to fund the continuation of the project, but through a private donation of the two researchers were able to move forward. In vitro fertilization was then the center of a lively ethical debate, initiated by Edwards himself with an article written by attorney David Shape already anticipated many of the complicated questions that would have led to reproductive medicine. Despite Edwards himself asserted that research on human reproductive cells and embryos should be carried out under precise ethical guidelines , and although it was assured that an ethics committee was created at the Bourn Hall Clinic, its work on artificial insemination met a strong opposition by religious leaders that they considered immoral by governments, which they thought was more important to limit fertility rather than promoting it, and some colleagues who had different ideas about the safety of embryos. "In retrospect - reads a note from the Nobel committee - it seems incredible that Edwards only been able to answer all the criticisms that flooded over the years, but which has remained so unflappable and determined in pursuing its objective science. "
