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| A screengrab of HT report on Daljinder Kaur, 72, and Mohinder Singh, 79, with their son Armaan Singh |
May 11, 2016, NewsCrunch
There is an yet another report of a couple in their 70s having a baby through IVF.
The Hindustan Times reports that an Amritsar Daljinder Kaur, 72,and her husband Mohinder Singh Gill, 79, are the proud parents of a healthy baby boy, Arman Singh.
The child came 46 years after their marriage and about 20 years after the lady's menopause, with the able assistance of National Fertility and Test Tube Baby Centre in Hisar.
The woman was in frail health, but a battery of experts including a cardiologist cleared the idea, which took three tries to succeed.
Daljinder Kaur's fallopian tubes were blocked. The couple could not seek treatment when they were young as they were unaware. Mohinder Singh says he was engaged in litigation with close relatives that gave little time for anything else.
IVF-enabled aged couples have many precedents in India. In 2008, a 66-year-old woman had given birth to triplets at the same Hisar centre.
A 70-year-old woman Rajo Devi had given birth to a baby girl in 2006.
These treatments raise ethical questions that need to be addressed. Experts recommend an age cap on IVF treatment to ensure that parents are around till the child reaches adulthood. They also note that as the couple age the quality of their sperm and egg deteriorates.
A few countries have legislated upper age cap on IVF couples and a few countries have left it to the self-regulation of industry bodies and clinics.
In India, there seems to be neither.