While scientists had some success in fertilising rabbit eggs in a laboratory, Edwards soon discovered that the process for humans was quite different and much more complex. He spent many years studying the human egg, and how it could best be fertilised by sperm outside the body. He succeeded in fertilising an egg in 1969, but they did not develop. Patrick Steptoe was a British gynecologist who had done a lot of work using a laparoscope to investigate the ovaries. Using the laparoscope he was able to take eggs directly from the ovaries. Edwards was able to use these eggs and successfully fertilize them in a test tube, actually a cell culture dish. This discovery caused a lot of debate and discussions about whether this sort of study should be allowed to continue.