Archiving the work of Dr. Subhas Mukherjee: The architect of India’s test tube baby

Abstract

India’s first test baby-Kanupriya, also known as Durga, was born on 3 October 1978, just 67 days after the birth of Louise Brown in England. She was the brainchild of Dr. Subhas Mukherjee, a reproductive biologist from Kolkata, India. This idea was way ahead of its time. Thus, it met with harsh criticism and rejection. Dr. Subhas faced severe humiliation, constant repudiation, and multiple transfers. This led to his tragic death on 19 June 1981. In 1997, Dr. T. C. Anand Kumar, former director of the Institute of Research in Reproduction (now ICMR-NIRRCH), Mumbai, who had headed the team that led to the birth of India’s first ‘scientifically documented’ test-tube baby ‘Harsha’ in 1986, assessed Dr. Mukherjee’s diaries, papers, and handwritten notes on his technique and after that credited Dr. Mukherjee by extensively writing about his pioneering feat. In 2002, after 21 years of his death, ICMR recognized his work for the first time. Dr. Mukherjee’s method of combining in vitro fertilization and cryopreservation of human embryos is the currently preferred technique of medically assisted reproduction. Dr. Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize for creating a test tube baby in 2010. Though Dr. Subhas Mukherjee was the first Asian to discover such a process and the first to discover live birth from frozen embryos, he never got recognition during his lifetime. Till now, he has not received any honor of such magnitude. Much of Dr. Subhas’s work remains unpublished because of restrictions and prohibitions by the authorities. We believe, there is a need to preserve and document Dr. Mukherjee’s work to make it a familiar name in India. For this purpose, meticulous, unbiased, and thorough analysis of all the available material was necessary. This project was undertaken with this intention.