Friday, March 29, 2024
Advertisement
  1. You Are At:
  2. News
  3. India
  4. India's First Test-tube Baby Doctor Was Hounded, Committed Suicide

India's First Test-tube Baby Doctor Was Hounded, Committed Suicide

New Delhi, Oct 4: As Test-tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards comes under focus for bagging the 2010 Nobel Prize for Medicine, the physician behind India's first Test-tube baby in 1978 was mired in a controversy

PTI PTI Updated on: October 04, 2010 17:55 IST
india s first test tube baby doctor was hounded committed
india s first test tube baby doctor was hounded committed suicide

New Delhi, Oct 4: As Test-tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards comes under focus for bagging the 2010 Nobel Prize for Medicine, the physician behind India's first Test-tube baby in 1978 was mired in a controversy and even hounded that led him to end his life.


The country's first successful in-vitro fertilization to produce "Durga" alias Kanupriya Agarwal--second test tube baby in the world--was performed by Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay on October 3, 1978. The Calcutta-based doctor got belated recognition eight years later but it was tragically late.

The world's first test tube baby Louise Brown was born just three months earlier on July 25, 1978 in the UK when Edwards' efforts were crownd by success. Some four million Test-tube babies have been born worldwide since 1978.

Durga's birth was caught in ethical and moral controversies with the West Bengal government even denouncing Mukhopadhyay's claim that he had created history in India. The physician's achievements  were not recognised at first.

Facing social ostracization, bureaucratic negligence, reprimand and insult from the Marxist government and refusal of the Government of India  to allow him to attend international conferences, the physician committed suicide in his Calcutta residence on June 19, 1981.

The physician was subjected to repeated questioning by a committeee formed by the West Bengal government. The Commitee said the doctor's work was bogus

His feat has since  been posthumously  recognised. He has been given belated recognition as the Indian physician who in 1986 was "officially" regarded as being the first doctor to perform in-vitro fertilization in India.

Eight years after the birth of 'Durga', India's second Test-tube baby Harsha was born.

Indira Hinduja was the gynaecologist responsible for the birth of Harsha Chawda at the state-run hospital K.E.M. Hospital in  Mumbai on August 16, 1986. Some records say that Harsha is the 'first' Test-tube baby because of the controversy involving Mukhopadhayay.

Like Brown's birth, Durga's birth had caused public debate, criticism and  even social professional ostracism of those involved in  initiating life outside the body.

Harsha's birth opened up the much-sought opportunity for treating couples incapable of natural reproduction. The ICMR estimates at least 10 per  cent of couples in India face infertility.

Apart from factors like low sperm count, infections and erectile dysfunction in males, damaged fallopian tubes, low egg production and  fibroids in females, lifestyle changes have also adversely  affected fertility.

In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is a complex process in which the ovum is fertilised outside the body and the fertilised egg is then implanted to the uterus.

Presently, there are more than 400 IVF clinics in India that even treat those coming from abroad due to the comparatively  lower costs and, in some cases, for Indian donor eggs.

Mukhopadhyaya's life and death has been the subject of countless newspaper reviews and inspired the Hindi movie 'Ek Doctor Ki Maut' (Death  of a doctor), directed by Tapan Sinha. PTI
Advertisement

Read all the Breaking News Live on indiatvnews.com and Get Latest English News & Updates from India