The world's second test-tube baby
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Did Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay in Kolkata achieve IVF independently in 1978, only weeks after Britain, and why was he not believed?
Independent discoveriesMedicine & health
Indian claim
Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay and colleagues in Kolkata produced India's first IVF baby, Durga (Kanupriya Agarwal), born on 3 October 1978, using their own methods.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Durga was born about ten weeks after Louise Brown. Mukhopadhyay worked independently and used frozen embryos, which was itself unusual for the time.
- A West Bengal government panel rejected his claim and he was not allowed to present abroad. He died by suicide in June 1981.
- Dr T.C. Anand Kumar, long credited with India's first IVF baby in 1986, examined Mukhopadhyay's handwritten notes in 1997 and concluded he had been first; his efforts led the Indian Council of Medical Research to recognise Mukhopadhyay's work.
Commonly credited to
Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards in England produced the world's first IVF baby, Louise Brown, on 25 July 1978. Edwards received the Nobel Prize in 2010.
Evidence for the other claim
- Steptoe and Edwards published their work in The Lancet in 1978 and had a long, documented research record behind it.
What historians and scientists say
Louise Brown was born first, but Mukhopadhyay reached the same result separately and almost at the same time. India's own scientific establishment failed him, and his priority within India is now officially accepted.