IVF For Elderly: Triumph Of Science or Unethical?




Left, Right & Centre show

Summary: A couple, from Andhra Pradesh who made international headlines this week for becoming the world's oldest parents went home with their twin girls on Sunday. 80-year old Raja Rao and 74-year old Mangayamma used IVF to finally have children, after not being able to conceive for 57 years. But the very fact of an 80-year old and a 74-year old becoming parents has led to a growing controversy, with some doctors' groups even issuing a statement, saying this is a deplorable omission of ethics, morality and misuse of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies. They have demanded that IVF procedures should have an outer age limit of 45 years. On Left, Right & Centre we discuss why is this still a grey area in our laws? And is IVF for the elderly a triumph of medical science or just plain unethical?