NEW DELHI: The shocking case of a 74-year old delivering twins through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in Andhra Pradesh triggered demands for expediting a long-pending Central law to regulate clinics offering assisted reproductive techniques (ART) in India.
Erramatti Mangayamma from Guntur gave birth to two baby girls on Thursday at Ahalya ART clinic, becoming probably the oldest to achieve motherhood in the world. She had no child prior to the twins.
Experts and public health activists called out the ART clinic for its deplorable decision to offer the service to a geriatric couple. It would have been illegal had the proposed ART Bill been enacted. Three versions of the bill had been prepared in 2008, 2010 and 2014 based Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) guidelines, but it is yet to be sent to Parliament.
“It’s immoral and unethical on the part of the clinic to have put the life of such an old woman at risk in order to allow her to have her own children,” said Jaideep Malhotra, president of the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction. “A few such instances of women in their 60s and 70s becoming mothers through IVF have also been facilitated in the recent past but the government has not felt the need to regulate the sector,” she said, adding: “This is yet another example of how cheap human life is in this country.”
ICMR officials confirmed that the proposed ART Bill had a provision to fix an upper age for men and women attempting parenthood through IVF - 45 years for women and 50 years of men. “The Bill has remained stuck as consensus could not be built even though the government did go ahead with one part of it through a separate bill on surrogacy,” a senior health ministry official said. Experts said pregnancies through IVF carry more risks for even younger mothers, let alone a woman in her 70s.
Age cap for couples proposed
* An ART Bill that is yet to reach Parliament has proposed 45 years for women and 50 years for men as the ceiling for the undergoing the procedureThree versions of the bill were prepared, first in 2008, then in 2010 and finally in 2014, and shared with stakeholders but there is no consensus yet. Blame it on the powerful ART lobby
* No medical institution should offer what the clinic in Guntur has done. It’s simply horrible. Some regulation of the sector is urgently required - Nandita Palshetkar, Mumbai-based infertility expert
* Restricted supply of blood from mother to baby due to the size of the placenta may affect the physical and mental health of the child. That apart, who will take care of the child born to an elderly couple after them? Dr K Chandra Reddy, London IVF Clinic in Vizag.
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