This is heartbreaking in just about every way possible.
Rajo Devi Lohan of India and her husband wanted children for years but were unable to conceive. But so intense was their desire for children that they procured loans to afford IVF treatments while in their 60’s. The couple celebrated the birth of their child last year while Lohan was 70 years old. Now, due to complications stemming from the pregnancy, Lohan is reportedly dying and currently too weak to care for her baby, saying her body never recovered from bearing the child.
This is awful and my prayers go out to the entire family but especially the child. But is it surprising? I don’t think we can call it that…
June 15, 2010 at 4:21 pm
That is tragic. Prayers are on the way.
June 15, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Sad for the family, but the selfishness is frustrating. She has no regrets because *she* wanted to be a mother…so too bad for the orphaned child?
June 15, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Something other than simply IVF was involved here. IVF simply means the child was conceived outside the womb ("petri dish baby")and implanted then into the womb. A woman of that age would almost surely be post-menopausal, hence unable to carry a pregnancy even if IVF were used. So, I don't think this brief story is the whole picture. That being said, I think the whole thing is tragic, but remarks about the "selfishness" of the now dying mother are very uncharitable. This story being based in India, chances are this woman and her husband were NOT Catholic and not even Christian, but Hindu. I suspect that critics of this woman have no clue whatsoever of the intense social pressure that is put on women there to have children, particularly sons. A childless woman in India is basically a zero, and is reminded of this every day of her life, with attendant discrimination that people in the US – particularly women who have as many children as they want – can't even begin to imagine.
-CM
June 16, 2010 at 7:19 am
"I suspect that critics of this woman have no clue whatsoever of the intense social pressure that is put on women there to have children, particularly sons. A childless woman in India is basically a zero, and is reminded of this every day of her life, with attendant discrimination that people in the US – particularly women who have as many children as they want – can't even begin to imagine. "
And yet here in America, many women are PROUD of the fact that they have no children, calling themselves "child-free" as though they were lint-free or disease-free. In Europe and even here there is often pressure from society and inevitably even the government to either stop having children immediately (after three or just one) or not to have them at all. It may not take very long at all before the pressures here not to have children become inversely just as powerful as the pressures in India to have children.
June 16, 2010 at 9:44 pm
I have to wonder how long she expected to remain on earth?? I am 67 and wonder if I'll make it to 70—even without having a child that late.
June 16, 2010 at 11:32 pm
There's nothing "charitable" about pretending that sin and immorality are okay as long as people "have a good reason." The woman and her husband acted selfishly (lots of people do at some point, myself included). Period. That fact has nothing to do with my ability to be empathetic of their situation and the pressure they faced from their culture and society, so pfffft to you and your asinine assumptions.
June 17, 2010 at 12:24 am
As Catholics we are taught to accept God's holy will for us. We are also told that having a child in any other way than the way God meant– is not acceptable. Has that changed?
Yes, the poor woman needs prayers, and although short lived, she got her wish. I pray God grants her peace.