The prospect of test-tube babies has flared up into an international storm of controversy. On one side medical and Church leaders spoke of their misgivings and disclosed that they plan a series of investigations to ensure that experiments do not get out of control.

On the other side are Mrs. Sylvia Allen and her husband Kenneth who desperately want a baby. Mrs Allen volunteered for the test-tube experiment more than a year ago. In the past five months she has been to Oldham Hospital four times to give eggs.

Twice these have been fertilised by her husband. The keynote of official medical reaction was caution. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists will probe the medical and ethical implications of the new technique in which a wife's egg is removed from her body, fertilised in a test-tube by her husband and later Implanted back in the wife's womb to grow in the normal way.

Similar investigation has been promised by the British Medical Association. The Church of England also hopes to organise its own special study.

In Rome Father Jan Visser, a member of the Pope's Birth Control Commission, said: "The Church does not condone artificial insemination, even if accomplished with the consent of both marriage partners."