There is a pretty incredible story out of China today. A 64-year-old woman has used in-vitro fertilization to conceive and give birth to twins.
One one hand the age of the mother will surprise many and the use of in-vitro to conceive and give birth is controversial because abortion so often comes into play when multiple babies are implanted.
On the other hand, the story is also surprising because the mother purposefully violated the one-child policy to give birth. The Asian nation has been the subject of human rights concerns for decades because of that policy and the fored abortions, sterilizations and other human rights abuses that are a part of enforcing it.
According to the London Daily Mail, Sheng Hailin, 64, had twins Zhizhi and Huihui through IVF in 2010 as she decided to have them after eldest daughter died of CO poisoning. Says she and husband wanted to ‘survive and be free from loneliness’ but she and her husband are so old they are unable to properly care for the babies and have had to hire helpers to assist them.
What do you think about this?
It’s rare enough to fall pregnant aged 64… for it to be twins is even rarer.
And in China it is even rarer still to be allowed to keep your twins thanks to a one-child policy that’s been in force since the 1970s.
But Sheng Hailin managed to achieve all three when she became China’s oldest mother four years ago giving birth to daughters Zhizhi and Huihui aged 60.
Sheng and her husband decided that she wanted to become a mother again after her daughter, 29, was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in 2009.
Hailin said that she and her husband wanted to have the twins to ‘survive and free myself from loneliness.’So, in a rare move for the country which enforces a one-child policy, a military hospital in Heifei agreed to give Mrs Hailin and her husband IVF treatment.
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And in 2010 she gave birth to Zhizhi and Huihui. They are now aged three.
Following their birth, Sheng has returned to work as a medical worker giving health lectures and also spends more than 10,000 Yuan (£949) a month on two helpers because she is no longer able to undertake some physical tasks of looking after the children, such as bathing.
