The successful delivery of Nepal’s first test-tube baby through the In Vitro Fertilisation technology is good news for many couples — Nepalis go to India in significant numbers to seek these services. Given that the first test tube baby, Louise Joy Brown, was born in the UK as far back as July 25, 1978, the scientific know-how involved in fertilising the egg with a sperm outside the human body and transplanting the zygote back into the womb has now become almost a tame affair the world over. But the process nevertheless is not free from hurdles. Hence, it is a moment worth cherishing for the medical fraternity at home and those couples forced to seek solace in IVF technology.

But beyond Thursday’s success, the road to scientific technology in medical fields is long, expensive and almost beyond reach, especially for the poor in Nepal. Though necessity is the best agent that pushes people to go almost to any extent to embrace new technology, Nepal has so many other bigger health frontiers to conquer even as it is ushering in newer and exotic medical technology. But like it or not, the science base, quite strong at the individual level, is weak at the institutional level. Nepalis all over the globe have been rubbing their shoulders with the best in a range of disciplines, but they are often handicapped in the absence of facilities at home. Had it not been the case, the first open heart surgery in Nepal would have been performed much earlier than in 1992 and saved lives in the process.

Medical science has developed by leaps and bounds in recent years. So much so that the Western world is mooting radical concepts in helping people live healthier and longer lives. If cloning of Dolly in 1996 was a medical breakthrough, the ethical aspects of whether or not such a technology could be applied to humans is a debate unlikely to stop anytime soon. Equally daring is the concept of gene therapy and the applied aspects of stem cell research which in theory offer the scope of rectifying faulty genetic structure and organ transplant respectively. But no technological marvel is without its negative aspects. The second IVF case — a set of twins — and the likely third case — a set of quadruplets —is a testimony to the fact that even IVF, decades after first performed, is far from perfect. Even as technology for those eager to embrace it must be made available, the government must not ignore the bigger practical challenges: fighting diarrhoea, dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis and other preventable diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Otherwise the introduction of new medical technology will be limited to the few rich, while the people living without dispensaries and hospitals continue to die without basic medical services.