Doctors raise concerns after elderly Indian woman gives birth

New Delhi (AFP) - Doctors in India on Wednesday raised ethical and health concerns after a woman gave birth to her first child in her 70s, following two years of IVF treatment.

Daljinder Kaur gave birth last month to a healthy boy after falling pregnant by her 79-year-old husband, following fertility treatment at a northern Indian clinic.

Kaur said the couple, married for 46 years, were overjoyed at finally having their first child after enduring years of taunts in a country where infertility is sometimes seen as a curse from God.

“I feel blessed to be able to hold my own baby. I had lost hope of becoming a mother ever,” Kaur told AFP from her home in Amritsar city.

“I used to feel empty. There was so much loneliness.”

Kaur put her age at about 70 – a common scenario in India, where many people don’t have birth certificates – while the clinic said in a statement that she was 72.

But fertility expert Sunil Jindal raised questions about the future of a child born to elderly parents, as well as health issues for the mother.

“There are ethical issues. In my opinion it is unfair to do such a procedure on a woman who is over 60,” Jindal told AFP.

“The sheer fact that a woman in her 70s has to carry the weight of a child in her womb for nine months is stressful.



"Then the question comes how are the parents going to look after the baby? That is also quite a task.”

The clinic, in the northern state of Haryana, told AFP the couple’s baby was conceived using Kaur’s egg and her husband’s sperm after two previous unsuccessful attempts.

But Britain’s the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday quoted the clinic’s doctor saying donor eggs were used. The doctor declined to comment to AFP on Wednesday, saying it was not ethical of him to do so.

Gynaecologist Anshu Jindal, based in Meerut not far from the capital, said she tried to discourage women over the age of 60 from undergoing fertility treatment – for the sake of both mother and child.

“According to me it is not an age to have a baby. It will take a toll,” she told AFP.

The clinic’s doctor told AFP on Tuesday that tests showed Kaur was medically fine to carry the baby through pregnancy.

The case is not the first in India – a 72-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh state reportedly gave birth to twins in 2008, also through IVF.

Originally Posted by arista (Post 8645483) At Least they have a big family to help them old folks and baby

Originally Posted by Livia (Post 8645497) As long as the child is loved and cared for (and she does seem to have quite an extended family) then it's no one's business but hers.

Originally Posted by Livia (Post 8645497) As long as the child is loved and cared for (and she does seem to have quite an extended family) then it's no one's business but hers.

Originally Posted by joeysteele (Post 8645503) I'd agree totally with this. It does on the surface seem kind of unnatural to become a Mother at 70,however for men, they can become Fathers and do in their 70s. Definitely the overriding element to this as is said in the quoted post,is that the child is wanted, loved and cared for.

Originally Posted by Niamh. (Post 8645513) Where does it say that? And where does it say that they would raise the child when these too inevitably die, it's pure selfishness imo Until they die though and where does that leave the child? parent less

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet (Post 8645522) India should be actively stopping people having children not letting grannies have them

Originally Posted by joeysteele (Post 8645517) Agreed,however also that is something no one really knows, when someone will die. Children lose Mothers and Fathers to cancer and other illnesses for instance often at very young ages. It is also possible these Parents may live to into their 80s or beyond even, then this child will be a adult anyway. Sometimes even a few years with loving parents is better than a lifetime with bad parents and it must be the case that this Lady wanted this child.

Originally Posted by Niamh. (Post 8645541) Well the father is 79 now so he would 97 (or more than likely dead) when the child is 18 ETA : And yes children can lose parents to cancer etc, that's unfortunate but nobody can predict circumstances like that. What you can predict though is that a couple in their 70's are A - Unlikely to make it through the childs childhood and B will more than likeliy struggle to look after a baby/toddler.

Originally Posted by joeysteele (Post 8645554) All valid points. The only points I would add is these 2 people could well live into their 80s or even 90s. There are no guarantees they won't or will admittedly. Also we don't know how fit and well these 2 people are either,one would expect good medical checks will have been done as to both as potential Parents.

Originally Posted by Niamh. (Post 8645556) I'm not trying to be ageist or tell people what they can or can't do but I think the child should be the main focus here and not the parents, it's terrible that this woman couldn't have a child on her own and I feel bad for her but what she and her husband has done, imo is put their needs above what is good for the child that they've brought into the world No one can predict what age this couple will live till but since the average life expectancy in India is 67, it seems very very likely they won't live through this childs childhood and that's selfish plain and simple.

Originally Posted by Niamh. (Post 8645513) Where does it say that? And where does it say that they would raise the child when these too inevitably die, it's pure selfishness imo

Originally Posted by Livia (Post 8645598) On the news this morning. We've all had this discussion before... and we all had the same opinions before.

Originally Posted by Niamh. (Post 8645600) fair enough but why have a child that you expect someone else to raise? What's the point? We have had this discussion before but this situation is even more severe imo, this couple are alot older than others that have been posted about before (iirc)

Originally Posted by Livia (Post 8645604) Lots of young people have kids they abandon for someone else. With all the horrible things going on in the world, all the unwanted, abandoned children left to fend for themselves on the streets, trafficked into the sex industry, used as slaves in sweatshops, I don't find the idea of a child being brought into the world by two people who love him that difficult to take, whatever their age.