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Knocked Up: Desi septuagenarian edition

From Santosh On 4 July 2008 View Comments

Sri. Charan Singh Panwar and Smt. Omkari Panwar are proud parents of newborn twins. [Fox News]

Boldly going where no septuagenarians have ever gone before
img: via Fox News

Here’s the twist, Omkari Panwar is 70, and her husband, Charan Singh Panwar is …… 77! And the twins were produced through IVF treatments! Science is wonderful, even when viagra fails there is still hope.

A 70-year-old from Muzaffarnagar, India, became the world’s oldest woman to give birth after she delivered twins Friday.Omkari Panwar, the wife of a retired farmer, delivered the twins — a boy and girl — via Caesarean section.

What makes the story more intriguing is the fact that the couple already had adult children and even grandchildren. But in their warped minds, one thing was missing – a male heir,

Panwar, who has two adult daughters and five grandchildren, underwent in-vitro fertility treatment so she could produce a male heir.

So they sold all their belongings, spent all their life savings and went into debt to undergo IVF treatments, solely for producing – a male heir – at the age of 70 and 77.

There are so many things wrong with this story I’m not sure where to start. For starters, various medical experts have weighed in about, what can only be termed, a foolish and risky pregnancy procedure, both for the mother and the children. Add to that the fact that at 70 and 77, the parents are highly unlikely to see his children reach puberty, let alone adulthood. Is it really fair for either kid, male or female, to be knowingly put in a situation where they could be orphans before turning 15?

Secondly, WTF were these people thinking? Another sample quote that shows how people don’t really think before they act.

“At last we have a son and heir,” he said. “We prayed to God, went to saints and visited religious places to pray for an heir.”
“We kept no stone unturned and God has rewarded us. The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. I can die a happy man and a proud father.”

After going through all this and becoming responsible for two more innocent lives, all the man wants to do is die in peace!!!

By the way, with all this talk of “male heir”, what is this poor kid going to be heir to? All we know for sure, is that he is going to be heir to the debt that his short sighted senile parents incurred on all the IVF treatments they went through for siring him. He will also, for life, be the product of a misogynistic ritual that to this day continues to haunt Indian society. Not to mention the fact that someday his twin sister will discover she was just a by-product.

I hate doing such stories about India because the western media tends to present a skewed view. But this prejudice against the girl child is very real. The numbers speak for themselves. [Link]

THE record-breaking birth underlines another trend in India – the overwhelming desire for male children. According to India’s 2001 census, the country has a national average of 927 girls for every 1,000 boys. The ratio for children from infancy to age six is 798 girls to 1,000 boys in Punjab, 819 girls in Haryana and 916 in Uttar Pradesh. The British medical journal the Lancet recently estimated that 500,000 female foetuses are aborted each year in India solely because of their gender. In April, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, termed female foeticide and infanticide “a national shame”.

Most desis in the US would rather not talk about it, pretending that it doesn’t happen in their family and/or this prejudice towards female children is endemic to India. But this obsession for the male child is as real in India as it is in the Indian diaspora abroad. Anecdotal evidence, the PEW Religious survey for Hindus that puts the adult male-female ratio in the US at below 60-40, which is just mind boggling in this day and age. Resident or NRI, stupidity transcends geographical borders.

I’m all for the freedom of choice and pursuit of happiness. But I also have a theory that I’ve written about previously – *most* human beings are incapable of decision making, even in free societies. What you saw in this story is a prototypical example of conformity (“hey if all these young people can get pregnant with IVF treatments, I guess even we can do it at 70+”) and bad decision making by individuals in a relatively free society. People should be free to do as they please if it makes them happy, as long as it doesn’t infringe on someone else’s ability to do the same. In this case, are the action of the Panwars really in the best interests of their children? What, if anything, should the society and/or the government do?

Thoughts? Opinions? I’m sure there are some.

Also read: The 90 year old man who sired his 21st child with his daughter-in-law.

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  • OK, I'll go out on a limb here. I think their ages are over-estimates. She looks like she's in her mid-50s, he in his early 60s. And the story here, to me, is that this couple thought to access IVF, and it was made available to them. IVF to me means 'in vitro fertilization', otherwise known as 'test tube baby' - I'm old enough to remember when the first test tube baby was born, and it wasn't that long ago, and I thought it was still a laboratory curiosity. But these people, found out about it, and invested in it, and looks like they both wanted to, and although their stated son preference is a bit bothersome, focusing on that misses the larger story, viz., that this couple actually got access to IVF.

    And I think the '90-year old' is also being given a few extra decades by the headline writers. He's probably in his late 60s, if a day. And although it's a bit weird that he married his widowed daughter-in-law, it's not an incestuous situation. I really don't see why we should beat up on him too much.

    As people live longer, and can have children later in life, they're going to want to do that, and looks like they are. Gee, maybe reproduction is a basic urge among all living things, or something.
  • Kristen
    First of all, seeing as they are kinda old, i hope they have a nanny on hand because i dont see a 70 year old woman staying up all night with a crying baby.Not to mention that i dont see them living much longer at that age. Second of all, if they lost all their savings and such for the treatments then what is the point of having a male heir when u dont have anything left to give it?
  • Runa
    Besides the absolute moron-ness of the whole "son and heir" thing- the the whole issue of IVF is fraught with such bioethical issues. Just because something is medically possible is it necessary?While I am all for the government staying out of the bedroom, this is one area where I think world wide some kind of ethical laws need to be put into place - that cover idiots like these two as well as moronic fathers who choose to have children at 90.Think I am too harsh - see this
  • and maybe add a whole amount of red tape + mandatory instructional courses for gender-centric parents, that would make them wince like little school children.
  • This is a misuse of the availability of IVF treatment , couples with at least one alive healthy child should pay a ridiculous amount of tax, to get another child, if doing it just because of their gender preference.
  • spee
    This sort of news makes me feel so hopeless about India. Yes, I believe plight of any women in any country will have direct effect on the progress of that country. I also feel that educated women in India (including many of us in US) are too complacent about life and not doing enough to serve as role models to girls in rural and poorer community. I feel we should be more proactive. Also we should have a dowry whistle blowing award.
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