Recognition sought for India's test tube baby pioneer

Twenty seven years after Dr Subhas Mukherjee ended his life, unable to bear stinging criticism and government's indifference to the medical technique he pioneered in producing the world's second and India's first test tube baby, the medical fraternity has sought national recognition for him.

Considered the father of Indian in-vitro fertilization, Mukherjee used an innovative medical procedure back in 1978 to bring to the world India's first test tube baby, just four months after Dr Patrick Steptoe and Dr Robert Edwards produced the world's first test tube baby at Britain's Oldham Hospital.

However, Mukherjee's medical achievement was not recognised by the country.

Unable to bear the indifference of the medical fraternity and the government, the doctor took his life in 1981, leaving behind a vast body of pioneering research work in reproductive medicine and genetics.

The test tube baby Kanupriya Agarwal is now in her 30s.

"Even though the Indian Council of Medical Research accorded belated recognition to Mukherjee's work in 2005-06, that is not enough. What is required is a national centre of excellence to be named after the great scientist who was ahead of his time," says Dr Sudarshan Ghoshdastidar, one of his colleagues.

Ghoshdastidar, himself engaged in IVF research, recalled how Mukherjee was denounced by the medical community "who viewed his achievement with a sense of utter disbelief".

The Indian Medical Association (state branch) also feels that the government should accord due recognition to Mukherjee.

"Twenty seven years have elapsed since Dr Mukherjee left this world, but his work deserves due recognition at the national level and the IMA fully endorses the demand," IMA state secretary A Bhattacharya said.

"It was entirely a different situation prevailing at the time when Dr Subhas Mukherjee's scientific innovation was announced. It is believed that due to technical reasons, his claim was not entertained. As the situation has now changed, his work should be considered a pioneering one," he said.

Recalling how Dr Mukherjee was humiliated by his fellow doctors, who almost deserted him after the birth of the test tube baby, Ghoshdastidar said, "He was much ahead of his time and that is the reason why his colleagues viewed his work with disbelief."

It was the Gynaecological Society of India, he said, which "failed to assess Dr Mukherjee's outstanding work and not only refused to recognise his work, but poured humiliation".

"It was ironic that while Dr Mukherjee's pioneering work was accepted worldwide, his own country denounced him."

"I worked with Dr Mukherjee and was with him in the last two and a half years. I was deeply impressed by his vision and how he used to update himself with the latest in medical science. He worked with the multi-ovulation techniques which was quite tough," Ghoshdastidar said.

Dr Mukherjee, Ghoshdastidar recalled, was even denied passport to visit Japan to take his research paper to Kyoto after the Japan government had sought to launch a collaborative IVF programme with suggestions from him.

"The government denied him passage to visit Japan and left him disheartened," he said.

He said that the Centre formed a national expert committee, of which he (Ghoshdastidar) was a member in 2004-05, to draft a national guideline on IVF, which followed Dr Mukherjee's pioneering work and line of action.