Ian Craft: fertility pioneer responsible for the UK’s first IVF twins

On 29 April 1982, Europe’s first set of twins conceived by in vitro fertilisation (IVF) were born at London’s Royal Free Hospital. They represented the culmination of five years’ work for Ian Craft, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology.

Helped by a donation from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, in 1977 Craft had set up an IVF facility at the Royal Free. After the twins’ birth, he had a succession of “IVF firsts.” In 1984, he co-wrote a seminal paper on the use of buserelin to solve the problem of women ovulating before their eggs could be collected, and in 1985 he achieved the first birth with the drug. Buserelin’s use alone would double the rate of live births.

In 1986, Craft was the first in the UK to achieve a live birth through gamete intrafallopian transfer, and in 1987 he was the first to help a woman have a baby through egg donation. In the same …