World’s first two test-tube babies to join hands to seek recognition for IVF pioneer

Kolkata: Come October and the world’s first two test-tube babies — Louise Brown from London and Durga from Mumbai — will be sharing the dais for a noble cause in Kolkata. The two women, born 67 days apart in 1978, will be part of a campaign to seek a befitting posthumous honour (Bharat Ratna or Padma Bibhushan) for IVF pioneer Subhash Mukhopadhyay.

It will be Brown’s maiden India visit and the first time she sees Kanupriya Agarwal alias Durga. But the historic occasion would assume greater significance as the two 43-year-olds join hands supporting the crusade to bring justice to a forgotten scientist, especially since the man was instrumental in creating one of them. The campaign will be launched this Saturday in the city by the Birth Inspire Foundation, Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction (ISAR) and Academy of Clinical Embryologists (ACE) in the presence of intellectuals and the city’s who’s who.

Durga, so christened by Mukhopadhay to keep her identity a secret, was born on October 3, 1978. While Brown’s scientific father, Robert G Edwards, is hailed as the father of IVF and was honoured with the Nobel prize, Mukhopadhyay faced humiliation and a government inquiry in December 1978. On June 19, 1981, the architect of India’s first IVF baby ended his life at home in Kolkata.