This evening, while crossing the border, pregnant refugee Ms. Lalima Ali went into labor. She was carried into this tent-hospital and handed over to two volunteer pediatricians: Ms. Priya Bose, MD from India and Ms. Zeenat Amin, MD from Pakistan. Ironically, both their countries have been involved in continuous regional conflict since their independence from the colonial power more than three score years ago. Unfortunately for Ms. Ali, this was a difficult pregnancy, complicated by poverty and associated malnutrition, lack of proper pre-delivery healthcare, and constant fear of being captured and annihilated. Both Drs. Bose and Amin comforted Ms. Ali, while beginning the preparation for the delivery of a baby with the limited amount of resources available to them.
At the same time, inside a research lab in a biosphere near the Arctic Circle, scientists Beth Conn, PhD from the US and Maya Muskova, PhD from Russia were getting ready to initiate an experiment. Academically trained as biologists, both underwent rigorous training program to come aboard to carry on several biology experiments in extreme cold environment. The experiments were designed to gain knowledge for future human habitation in space. This day, the long painstaking experiment involved “in vitro fertilization” in cold temperature. Coincidentally, this was also the day when Ms. Louise Joy Brown in England would turn forty years old; she was the “first test tube baby” on earth.
The experiment took longer than expected due to the difficulty in doing experiments under extreme conditions. But from all indications, both scientists felt the experiment went as planned. Dr. Conn began the process of deep-freezing the sample to bring it back to the US, while Dr. Muskova raised the shutter of the window on her side of the biodome. Both took a glance at the distant horizon. A mesmerizing scene of the sun rising over the horizon bringing a new morning to that part of the earth came to their view.
At the same time, inside the refugee camp, a new-born crying baby clinging to her mother’s arms announced her arrival to the world. As the proud mother began to cry in joy, two exhausted doctors stood there silently, while enjoying this glorious moment.