IVF pioneer Edwards awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine

Mtoday news

Stockholm, Oct 4 : Robert Edwards of Britain won the 2010 Nobel Prize in medicine today for developing in-vitro fertilisation, a breakthrough that has helped millions of infertile couples worldwide have children. 

 

Edwards, an 85-year-old professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, started working on IVF as early as the 1950s. He developed the technique, in which egg cells are fertilized outside the body and then implanted in the womb, together with gynecologist surgeon Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988. 

On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown in Britain became the first baby born through the groundbreaking procedure, marking a revolution in fertility treatment.

"(Edwards’) achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity, including more than 10 percent of all couples worldwide," the medicine prize committee in Stockholm said in its citation.  "Approximately 4 million individuals have been born thanks to IVF," the citation said.

"Today, Robert Edwards’ vision is a reality and brings joy to infertile people all over the world."  The probability of an infertile couple taking home a baby after a cycle of IVF today is 1 in 5, about the same that healthy couples have of conceiving naturally.  Steptoe and Edwards founded the first IVF clinic at Bourn Hall in Cambridge.

In a statement, Bourn Hall said one of Edwards’ proudest moments was discovering that 1,000 IVF babies had been born at the clinic since Brown, and relaying that information to a seriously ill Steptoe shortly before his death.  "I’ll never forget the look of joy in his eyes," Edwards said. 

The statement said Edwards was "not well enough to give interviews" on Monday.  Brown, 32, reportedly is a postal worker in the English coastal city of Bristol. In 2007 she gave birth to her first child _ a boy named Cameron.

She said the child was conceived naturally.  Aleksander Giwercman, head of reproduction research at the University of Lund in Sweden, said Edward’s achievements also have been important for other areas, including cancer and stem cell research.

"We received a tool that could be used for many other areas," Giwercman said. "Many of the illnesses that develop when we are adults have their origin early on in life, during conception." 

The medicine award was the first of the 2010 Nobel Prizes to be announced. It will be followed by physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and economics on October 11.

The medicine prize is the first of the 2010 Nobel awards to be announced. The award ceremony is Dec 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. Nobel, inventor of dynamite, endowed the prizes.

 

India’s First Test-tube Baby Doctor Was Hounded, Committed Suicide

 

New Delhi, Oct 4: As Test-tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards comes under focus for bagging the 2010 Nobel Prize for Medicine, the physician behind India’s first Test-tube baby in 1978 was mired in a controversy and even hounded that led him to end his life.

The country’s first successful in-vitro fertilization to produce "Durga" alias Kanupriya Agarwal--second test tube baby in the world--was performed by Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay on October 3, 1978. The Calcutta-based doctor got belated recognition eight years later but it was tragically late.

The world’s first test tube baby Louise Brown was born just three months earlier on July 25, 1978 in the UK when Edwards’ efforts were crownd by success. Some four million Test-tube babies have been born worldwide since 1978.

Durga’s birth was caught in ethical and moral controversies with the West Bengal government even denouncing Mukhopadhyay’s claim that he had created history in India. The physician’s achievements  were not recognised at first.

Facing social ostracization, bureaucratic negligence, reprimand and insult from the Marxist government and refusal of the Government of India  to allow him to attend international conferences, the physician committed suicide in his Calcutta residence on June 19, 1981.

The physician was subjected to repeated questioning by a committeee formed by the West Bengal government. The Commitee said the doctor’s work was bogus

His feat has since  been posthumously  recognised. He has been given belated recognition as the Indian physician who in 1986 was "officially" regarded as being the first doctor to perform in-vitro fertilization in India.

Eight years after the birth of ’Durga’, India’s second Test-tube baby Harsha was born.

Indira Hinduja was the gynaecologist responsible for the birth of Harsha Chawda at the state-run hospital K.E.M. Hospital in  Mumbai on August 16, 1986. Some records say that Harsha is the ’first’ Test-tube baby because of the controversy involving Mukhopadhayay.

Like Brown’s birth, Durga’s birth had caused public debate, criticism and  even social professional ostracism of those involved in  initiating life outside the body.

Harsha’s birth opened up the much-sought opportunity for treating couples incapable of natural reproduction. The ICMR estimates at least 10 per  cent of couples in India face infertility.

Apart from factors like low sperm count, infections and erectile dysfunction in males, damaged fallopian tubes, low egg production and  fibroids in females, lifestyle changes have also adversely  affected fertility.

In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is a complex process in which the ovum is fertilised outside the body and the fertilised egg is then implanted to the uterus.

Presently, there are more than 400 IVF clinics in India that even treat those coming from abroad due to the comparatively  lower costs and, in some cases, for Indian donor eggs.

Mukhopadhyaya’s life and death has been the subject of countless newspaper reviews and inspired the Hindi movie ’Ek Doctor Ki Maut’ (Death  of a doctor), directed by Tapan Sinha.