The initiative has been warmly welcomed by Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall Clinic - based near Cambridge - which was established by IVF pioneers Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards.

BBC: Pledge on free NHS IVF treatment

"Bob Edwards is one of our greatest scientists, " said Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall, the IVF clinic founded by Prof Edwards with his fellow IVF pioneer Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecological surgeon.

BBC: Test-tube baby pioneer Sir Robert Edwards dies

Working in close collaboration with gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988, Dr. Edwards overcame entrenched political and religious hostility, as well as the disapproval of many other scientists at the time, to pioneer the basic techniques of human embryology that led to the birth of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978.

WSJ: Test-Tube Baby Pioneer Robert Edwards Wins Nobel Prize for Medicine