A 73-year-old woman in the southern Indin state of Andhra Pradesh has given birth to twin girls.
Doctors delivered the twins, who were born following IVF treatment, on Thursday.
"The mother and the babies are doing well," Dr Uma Sankar, the woman's doctor, told BBC Telugu.
Mangayamma Yaramati said she and her husband, who is 82 years old, have always wanted children but had been unable to conceive until now.
"We are incredibly happy," her husband Sitarama Rajarao told BBC Telugu on Thursday, hours after the babies were born.
But just a day later, Mr Rajarao suffered a sudden stroke and is currently being treated in hospital.
"Nothing is in our hands. Whatever should happen will happen. It is all in the hands of God," Mr Rajarao had said when asked who would care for the children in case anything were to happen to the couple due to their advanced age.
Hi all. Just seen this article on the BBC news website. I feel it is completely unethical to do IVF for a woman in her 70s. This is money doing the talking and Hippocrates being ignored. There will be harm to these twins who will be orphaned young.
If these moms and kids appear to have ok outcomes, then who is to say we shouldn't continue the practice? (Again, I'm playing the devil's advocate here).
I guess that's my point---we have no way of knowing what the sequelae of inducing IVF in a post-menopausal woman are, so I'm uncomfortable with this case and its use of the mother as a guinea pig. She presumably wanted to go through with this, but it still seems like a boundary that shouldn't be crossed. I'm glad they're all doing well, but who's to say that IVF in such an elderly woman won't be linked to some type of reproductive cancer in a few years, the way we now know HRT for menopause can increase the risk of certain cancers in certain cases? It just makes me sick.
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I guess that's my point---we have no way of knowing what the sequelae of inducing IVF in a post-menopausal woman are, so I'm uncomfortable with this case and its use of the mother as a guinea pig. She presumably wanted to go through with this, but it still seems like a boundary that shouldn't be crossed. I'm glad they're all doing well, but who's to say that IVF in such an elderly woman won't be linked to some type of reproductive cancer in a few years, the way we now know HRT for menopause can increase the risk of certain cancers in certain cases? It just makes me sick.