Pregnancy and childbirth take a toll at any age, but Rajo Devi Lohan has struggled to regain her health more than most other women since becoming a mother.
After she had given birth eight years ago, the Indian woman was diagnosed with cancer. She has had three operations to repair a ruptured uterus and to remove tumours, many rounds of chemotherapy, and still suffers from stomach pain.
Lohan was 70 years old when she gave birth in 2008, becoming the oldest mother in the world at that time.
“The doctor didn’t tell me anything about the dangers and I never felt that there was any danger,” Lohan says.
A doctor who is now treating Lohan believes that her health problems could have been caused by fertility treatment and pregnancy.
Stories of elderly women having babies in India have made international headlines in recent years, including a 72-year-old who set a new world record when she gave birth in April.
But the ethics surrounding such births are increasingly coming under attack.
Critics insist that doctors, eager for fame and fortune, are putting lives at risk – from the elderly mothers and the young women who provide donor eggs, to the children themselves.
At least two young Indian women have died after donating eggs.
The first IVF baby was born in India almost 40 years ago. Since then, the industry has exploded, with IVF clinics opening up across the country.
Couples of all ages have flocked to fertility specialists in the hope of having a baby and shaking off the stigma associated with being childless in India, the world’s most populous country.
Al Jazeera travelled to the northern Indian town of Hisar and visited the National Fertility and Test Tube Baby Centre, the clinic that has helped create babies for some of the world’s oldest mothers.
The son of Daljinder Kaur, who gave birth in April at the age of 72, was created there.
Kaur had been married for 46 years before she and her 79-year-old husband became parents to baby Armaan, which means “hope”.
While Kaur considers her son a miracle from God, the man responsible for his birth is Dr Anurag Bishnoi. The embryologist claims to have helped more than 100 women over the age of 50 become pregnant.
“If men can have children into their 60s and 70s, why shouldn’t women be able to?” he asks.
Bishnoi insists his older patients must pass rigorous health checks before starting IVF treatment.
“We don’t see much of a risk as far as middle-aged and older ones are concerned,” he says.
Others disagree, arguing that age limits on who can access fertility treatment are urgently needed to protect women’s health.
“Seventy-two is not the right age to have a baby,” says Dr Narendra Malhotra, president of the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction. “Getting a 72-year-old pregnant is putting her life in jeopardy.”
Malhotra accuses Bishnoi of “playing God”. He says even though science can help women give birth at any age, “it is for society to decide whether we are going to let scientists do things … which are unethical or which put the patient and the child to great harm.”
While the elderly mothers attract the headlines, the other crucial players in this industry are largely invisible – the young women who donate their eggs. Without them, India’s record-breaking births would not be possible.
An agent tells Al Jazeera that he and his colleagues can easily recruit many egg donors.
“There are no complications in this procedure at all, so my agents tell other ladies that we pay a handsome amount for egg donations,” says Subhas Chandra. “If someone works in a factory they earn less than $75 a month but we can pay $525 for the 10-day process.”
But, for some women, the true cost of being an egg donor can be much greater – the procedure can claim their life.
Read More: aljazeera
