Soviet scientists are the latest to try to produce a test-tube baby. Researchers in Moscow confirm the effort is under way. They have not specified how much progress has been made, but one expert remarked: "As with all such endeavors, the initial stage is the hardest."

He said Soviet scientists are less interested in "the sensation" of their endeavor than in implications for the study of human reproduction.

British doctors produced the first such baby in 1978.m