Agnes McLaren

Agnes McLaren (4 July 1837 – 17 April 1913) FRCPI was a Scottish doctor who was one of the first to give medical assistance to women in India who, because of custom, were unable to access medical help from male doctors. Agnes was active in social justice causes including protests against the white slave trade. Her father had supported the campaign of the first women who sought to study medicine at University of Edinburgh and Agnes became friends with Sophia Jex-Blake, one of the Edinburgh Seven. Her father did not, however, support Agnes' own ambitions in this area. And as she could not graduate in medicine in Scotland, she went to study in France and later, in order to be permitted to practice at home, became a member of the Royal College of Dublin. and later converted to Catholicism and went on to carry out missionary work even though Roman Catholic law still prevented its sisters-in-vows from being doctors until 1936.

Background McLaren was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1877 she sat on the governing body of the London School of Medicine for Women. She was a visiting physician at the Cannongate Medical Mission Dispensary in Edinburgh. By 1882, she was also Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and had a practice in Cannes.

During her search for women who could help run the hospital, McLaren discovered that Catholic Canon Law prohibited Religious Sisters from giving this level of medical care. She petitioned the Pope and Holy See to lift the restriction and, while waiting for a response, continued looking for women interested in health care abroad. Anna Maria Dengel, an Austrian, responded to McLaren's request, but was never able to meet McLaren, who died shortly after their correspondence began. However, before her death, McLaren encouraged Dengel to study medicine at the Cork University, setting into motion Dengel's becoming a physician and, years later, her starting a new religious congregation, the Medical Mission Sisters. They are a Catholic congregation of Sisters who are trained as doctors and nurses and other forms of healthcare professionals, dedicated to providing healthcare to women and children around the world. In 1915, after reading a biographical pamphlet about McLaren's life, Australian doctor Mary Glowrey experienced a vocation to work as a medical missionary in Guntur, India. Mary Glowrey received special permission from Pope Benedict XV to work as a medical doctor and Religious Sister in 1920.

McLaren died in 1913 and was buried in Antibes, France. Her obituary in the British Medical Journal describes her as "a woman of strong individuality and character, known to a large circle of philanthropic workers of many nations, many kindreds and many creeds."