Impoverished Egyptian septuplet’s family - a failure of infertility treatment?
The news of the birth of septuplets to an impoverished Egyptian family who already had three girls, has raised a debate on the use of fertility treatments. The 27-year-old mother, Ghazala Khamis, had been trying for five years to get pregnant again - hopefully for a boy - before taking fertility drugs. She did end up with her boy, three times over, and four more girls.
In a country where the medical resources are very limited for such intensive medical needs, many are calling the doctor who prescribed the drugs as being foolhardy and didn’t take the family’s real needs into consideration: that of how they would feed and house such a large family. According to the article, Egypt septuplets stir debate on fertility drugs, this sudden expansion of the family will cause great hardship as they live in a two-room mud hut and her husband can only work a few days per week, when he able to find it.
When she first heard she was carrying multiples, the doctor heard 9 heartbeats, but two fetuses were lost. She refused fetal reduction due to the risk of losing all babies.
Doctors who are critical about the birth say that Egypt has no set rules or guidelines about infertility treatment and they fear that it is becoming abused because of the desire to produce sons. Facilities for such pregnancies are scarce to the point that the mother still has yet to see 4 of her 7 children.
What do you think? Is this an abuse of fertility treatment and can it only get worse? Weigh in and let us know what you feel.
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