Kolkata: Dr Subhash Mukherjee, the creator of India's first test-tube baby, who committed suicide after the Left Front government had allegedly neglected his research and was harassed by the then strong gynecologists' lobby, has been paid due respect posthumously by the Mamata Banerjee government for his enormous contribution to modern reproductive system as it named prestigious chairs at two state-run medical colleges in the city after him.
Dr Mukherjee, who pioneered in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in India, created the Country's first test tube baby, Kanupriya Agarwal, alias Durga, in October 1978 inside his house in Kolkata with the help of some general apparatus and a refrigerator.
He eventually committed suicide in 1981 after failing to get recognition. He could not handle constant criticism and the outright harassment he was subjected to.
After coming to power, the Mamata Banerjee government has showed respect to Dr Mukherjee by naming chairs after him at
the Physiology department of the NRS Medical College and Hospital and also in the School of Tropical Medicine.
The Endocrinology building at the NRS Medical College and Hospital
has been named after him for his contribution towards the modern reproductive technology.
Since his feat did not receive due acknowledgement from the scientific community, he might have taken a drastic step.
He had to face humiliations when he was transferred to Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital from the Physiology department of the NRS Medical College and Hospital.
He was again transferred to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital before being shunted to the Regional Institute of Opthalmology in Kolkata in June 1981 where there was no physiology department. He had committed suicide within a few weeks after he was shunted.
The West Bengal government set up an enquiry committee to investigate the matter in 1978. The committee concluded that his claim was false. It was said that the committee that condemned Dr Mukherjee's procedure reportedly comprised a gynaecologist, a psychologist, a physicist and a neurologist—none of whom had any knowledge of modern reproductive technology.
The Left front government had argued that Dr Mukherjee lacked sufficient documentation.
In the year 2002, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recognised his work for the first time.
He went to Edinburgh University in the UK for a PhD in reproductive endocrinology after studying
at the National Medical College and Hospital. After his return, he started his research in ovulation and spermatogenesis.
Within a year, he announced the birth of the world's second test-tube baby with a team comprising Sunit Mukherji, a cryobiologist, and Saroj Kanti Bhattacharya, a gynaecologist. Dr Mukherjee was born at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.
It came only 67 days after the British biologist Robert Edwards had announced the birth of the first test-tube baby in England.
But unlike Edwards, Dr Mukherjee's method of cryopreservation to preserve the human embryo is currently the preferred technique of medically assisted reproduction worldwide.