The Story of India’s First IVF Baby

Why Robert G Edwards’ Nobel prize makes Kanupriya Agarwal sigh in sadness

NEW DELHI — On Monday, as the Nobel Prize for Medicine was announced, Kanupriya Agarwal, 32, sat watching broadcast after broadcast about Robert G Edwards. He had got the prize for pioneering in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Kanupriya, India’s first IVF baby, was remembering the tragic story of Dr Subhas Mukhopadhyay, the scientist who brought her into the world. 

Kanupriya was born on 3 October 1978, 67 days after Edwards announced the birth of the world’s first IVF child. Due to lack of scientific documentation, the medical community and West Bengal government refused to recognise Mukhopadhyay’s feat. Insulted, he committed suicide in 1981. It was 25 years later that his accomplishments were recognised by the Indian Council of Medical Research. 

As a result, Kanupriya, who works in Gurgaon as a senior manager with confectionary giant Perfetti, says she  never felt like a special child. “My being an IVF child didn’t come up often. My family kept me grounded,” she says. It was only when she grew up that Kanupriya began to understand how IVF could help not only childless couples, but also in stem cell research and other medical processes. “After that, I did feel special, like I was the fruit of someone’s genius,” she says.

Though, Kanupriya adds, she hates suddenly being IVF’s poster child. “Why put my face? Recognise the scientists instead,” she says. She blames this on the humiliation her parents faced after her birth. “They were seen as accomplices of Dr Mukhopadhyay in what was then seen as a scam.” 

“Now that I am married, I can imagine how difficult it must have been for them. They came from a conservative Marwari family where not having a kid after 13 years of marriage was a stigma,” she says. Having met Mukhopadhyay through a common friend, they saw some hope in IVF despite being told that the child could be deformed. “My father tells me how happy they were to see five fingers on each hand when I was born.”

 

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