Not an “Injection Baby.” A Human Child.
Saiful (name changed), a police officer, called me last week from Malda. “Doctor, my child is two now.”
We spoke briefly.
Then he said a colleague of his—also in the police—was struggling to conceive and wanted to consult us.
Saiful’s issue had been male-factor infertility.
He never hesitated to do repeated semen analyses, genital examinations, or ultrasound.
He took treatment.
He underwent IVF.
He became a father.
But before hanging up, he added: “You can say we took treatment from you. But please… don’t tell anyone we had IVF.”
We assured him about confidentiality.
Still, he explained why.
In their police quarters, another colleague had IVF.
His 7–8-year-old child is often called “injection baby.”
Even adults use the term casually.
Saiful’s voice grew heavy.
“The child is small now. But when he grows up? Is IVF a crime, Doctor?”
That question belongs to society.---What IVF Actually
MeansI IVF does not create an artificial child.
A baby does not grow in a test tube.
Sperm and egg are fertilized in a lab to form a microscopic embryo.
That embryo is transferred into the mother’s uterus.
After that, everything is natural:
• Nausea
• Growing abdomen
• Fetal movements
• Normal or cesarean delivery from the mother’s body.
There is nothing “injection” about the child.
The label comes from ignorance and fear.---Privacy,
Not Shame
IVF can remain private—just like heart treatment, eye surgery, or diabetes care.
But privacy is not shame.
Parents who conceive through IVF are not lesser parents.
Children born through IVF are completely normal human beings.
If someone you know undergoes IVF—don’t mock, don’t label, don’t stigmatize.
They are not doing something wrong.
They are building a family.
A society becomes civilized when it sees medicine not as shame—but as hope.