newborn IVF twin girls abandoned at hospital because they're not boys.

[wannaBe]

shocking

"The husband then asked how soon it would be before his wife was fit enough to fly out again for further IVF in the hope of getting a boy to continue the
family name.".

They should bloody well have their passports taken away to prevent them flying out to have any further treatment. After they've been charged with abandonment that is.

cross posted with Tink there.

is sex selection available in india though?

maybe they went to india because they had family there who would help fund the treatment? maybe they couldn't go to another country because of the cost? maybe sex selection isn't yet available in india (it isn't available in all countries).

I still think a caring and educated permanent family is better than foster care (often with white family anyway)

The Romans didn't believe a baby was a human being until they were one year old. They would leave an unwanted baby before then in a particular drain.

kew, whilst i agree with all th ethings that you and tink have said, and they explain the reasoning behind the rules .
surely it is better to be in a loving family that doesnt look like you than to be shifted from fostrer home to foster home so you end up with no sense of belonging at all?
and tbh, i feel that parents who have gone out of their way to adopt are likely to be better at the parenting thing than a girl who gets pregnant by a casual affair and ends up with a mixed race child.
but all this is off topic.

oh tink

IVF is much cheaper in India, plus I don't think there are the age restrictions there as there are here. Not sure about sex selection - but read somewhere that there is a law against finding out the sex after implantation, but not before, in India so am guessing the implication is that they do test for sex before implantation.

Of course, they could have just got it wrong.

btw tink i LOVE your pic of dd with her hat on!

i think in india they have very strict rules about telling the sex of a child. much stricter than here. but i may be wrong.

i think mayn societies did that. remember reading about unwanted babies being exposed to the elements in icelandic culture (but may be completely wrong about this, to dont blast me). i suppose it is a form of abortion that doesnt do medical harm to the mother. very

Poor little innocents. How absolutely terrible on the part of the 'parents'.

I really, really hope that those babies get placed with an adoptive family soon who will give them the love they deserve.

Yes, sex-selection at IVF does happen in India - whether it's available at all clinics though, I'm not sure.

stitch a mother always shares a cultural identity with a child, I think that's the point. Would you have mixed race children removed from single mothers and given to an adoptive parent?

Naipolish I'm with you on this- it doesn't add up the poor woman could be DESPERATE to keep these babes but brow beaten by her husband &/or family. If so how many other daughters has she had to abandon elsewhere?

We could speculate endlessly but I doubt we know the real facts yet.... if we ever do.

It may interest you to know that this story appears to be a load of bollocks. What a surprise for a totally un-sourced, un-verified story. Not.

1.15pm BST update
IVF twin baby girls 'not dumped by parents'
David Batty and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Thursday May 29 2008 Article history
An NHS trust today denied that twin baby girls who were conceived through IVF in India were abandoned at a British hospital because their parents wanted boys.

NHS West Midlands said the twins had been transferred from New Cross hospital, Wolverhampton, to another hospital in Birmingham and were regularly visited by their parents.

The trust added that there had been no referral to social services which would be the standard procedure in a case of child abandonment.

An NHS spokeswoman said: "Twin girls were born earlier this month by emergency caesarean section.

"Shortly after birth, the babies were transferred to a unit in Birmingham closer to where their parents live. The parents are visiting their daughters and are attentive to their needs.

"For patient confidentiality reasons, the identity of the family and the babies are not being disclosed. The identity of the hospital is also not being disclosed. We are not aware of a referral to social services."

A spokesman for Birmingham city council confirmed there had been no referral to social services.

West Midlands police also said it had not been aware of the case until it first appeared in today's Sun. A spokeswoman added: "We have no involvement."

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/29/childprotection.children

I wonder how so many papers picked it up? Same unnamed source? I'm surprised at the telegraph though.

Very interesting. Wht could possibly be the Sun's motive in running a story which is comjpletely untrue?

And who gave them the story?

Good for David Batty - a reputable journalist who specialises in social affairs. And shame on The Sun.

Actually, I did notice that all the papers were written almost word for word the same. I was a little confused why that was. Makes sense now I guess.

I'll check with Mum if she knows anything.

oh dear - this really smacks of racism to spread a story like that. The only conclusion was that the (Asian) parents were complete uncaring idiots....

Looks like The Sun may have misrepresented the situation. Look here

More here

UK tabloid The Sun reported the couple - a 72-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman - even asked hospital staff how soon they could return to India for more fertility treatment.

But the father now says it was all a misunderstanding, The Sun reports. "They are my children ? we love my children," the paper quoted him as saying.

The man's son said his father's poor English was to blame for giving hospital staff the wrong idea.

"My father?s English is not good and the person receiving it at the other end must have lost something in translation," he was quoted as saying.

?The twins will be raised as their daughters. They will not be neglected."

really hope t was an error of translation

my friend conceived her ds's by ivf after several goes, the twins were born last week and she is watching them battle in scbu wioth her heart in her mouth

seems so bizarre the comparison

The story is confused. I guess they did not see the babies because she is 59 and has just had major surgery so maybe not able. And he is 72 with grown up children and perhaps takes an old fashioned view of a father's role.

I am guessing they did ask about how soon they could return for more IVF to concieve boys. And astounded hospital staff who seriously breached patient confidentiallity in leaking the story to the sun.

I don't like the way IVF is being used these days by much older parents but am not sure it is any of my business what people do abroad.

am still not convinced tbh.

If you look on google this story was widely reported in international media as well as here. And although the wording is the same, that's not unusual as lots of papers will pick up a story from one source, be it someone from one paper or a freelancer.

I am under absolutely no ilusions that a lot of what is printed in the press is absolute crap, but a story like this was bound to generate a huge response, so heads would almost certainly have to roll if it was discovered that it was made up in order to start a race row.