Chandigarh: “ 50 year old Meeta ( name changed) from Chandigarh ,Sec 55 wants to have a baby , not because her daughter or daughter- in- law could not conceive, but her young son had died and now the emptiness between the couple can be refilled only with a arrival of a baby. This old couple do not want to adopt a child. They want a biological baby. “Medically, it is possible for this old couple to have their own baby with the help of IVF with egg donations. but it is not ethical for a doctor.” says Dr Umesh Jindal.
Celebrating 17 years of IVF, Dr. Jindal while introducing her team says that theirs is the only institute in Chandigarh, where under one roof there are a number of IVF specialist working together and every doctor here has a different experiences with patients. “In difficult cases, IVF does succeed and gives happiness to many families”, says Dr. Anupam Gupta.” Till now, through various techniques of IVF, our centre has been able to deliver 500-600 bundles of joy to families.”
Dr. Ruby Ahuja, Clinical Psychologist, says that according to CARA (Centre Adoption Resource Authority), the compound age of parents for adopting a child (above three years) should be 105 years and individual age of parents should not be less than 25 years and more than 55 years. Whereas, for 0-3 year old baby’s adoption, the composite age of parents should be 90 years and individual age of the parents should not be less than 25 years and more than 50 years.
Problems with Prospective Adoptive Parent in Chandigarh
1. As per the guidelines, the time taken by a RIPA (Recognized Indian Placement Agency) to respond to a registered PAP (Prospective Adoptive Parent) for a home study should be between 15 – 30 days maximum, but in most cases it even takes 6 months.
2. All the PAP’s are asked to wait for a minimum of 2yrs. But if you can pull a few strings, then the time lag can be shortened considerably.
If the age of the PAP is above 90 yrs, then the RIPA indirectly refuses to register such couples and asks them to come again and again till they lose hope. The RIPA does not give any valid reasons to the already hassled PAP’s, and thereby, adoption for them is discouraged rather than encouraged.
3. Therefore, the older couples prefer a biological child than adoption. The basic reason for this is every parent who comes for adoption has a mindset that an adopted child has a social stigma attached with it. They find it difficult to deal with societal pressure.
4. Genetic inheritance is forcing them to opt for a biological child no matter what the future consequences maybe and surprisingly maximum doctors practicing IVF in the city do not make them aware of this.
Also, they do not want to go through the difficulties of an adoption procedure. Since March this year, we have counseled about 12 couples keen on an adoption, out of which none have reportedly been able to adopt a child via a RIPA. In fact, two couples got a child from their own relatives, and one of them from a private orphanage.
Dr. Nidhi says that ART in old age is very difficult. For a woman in this age bracket, parenting a child is very difficult, but medically, carrying a baby in her womb and delivering it can put her life at risk. Talking about two recent cases in Hisar, Dr. Nidhi says that after delivering the baby the old aged ladies die due to multiple medical problems. Dr. Aditi Gupta says that although they counsel them for various options, but they insist on having their own biological babies.
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Talking about the Changing trends of IVF, Dr. Jindal says that over the years there are many things in IVF which have changed and so as the success rate which has increased to 40 percent. There are improved injections with choice of type and are available at competitive rates, simple to use, less painful. Newer and better techniques and equipments have been introduced e.g vitrification, better embryo selection, IMSI, PGD, stem cell. In society Delayed child bearing, obesity victims and third party reproduction are in peak these days. As a result infertility amongst the male and female has too increased.