65-year-old woman to deliver quadruplets in two months
A 65-year-old German is expected to give birth to four babies in two months. According to Bild newspaper, Annegret Raunigk, a Berlin schoolteacher is pregnant with quadruplets. She already has children ranging in age from 9 to 44, from five fathers.
Raunigk said that she decided to become pregnant again because her 9-year-old daughter wanted a younger sibling.
Although her decision was criticized by medical professionals, Raunigk said she is not worried. She explained that the doctors see it how they want to, and she sees it the way she thinks is right.
Holger Stephan, head of obstetrics at the University of Leipzig, told the German DPA news agency that the 65-year-old body is not designed to carry a pregnancy, not of one child let alone certainly not of quadruplets.
Raunigk's donated eggs were fertilized and implanted at a clinic in Ukraine and it took multiple attempts to fertilize them.
She did not reveal whose sperm was used or if the egg donor was paid. She had to leave her country to receive an infertility treatment as its illegal in Germany in her age. She will become the oldest woman ever to have quadruplets.
Apart from reasons that an older body makes the pregnancy extremely risky, Raunigk's very-late pregnancy is also morally wrong due to a number of reasons.
Since she is old and won't live long enough to raise her current children, it will not be fair to the kids. She tends to create a family where mom and dad will enter a nursing home as the kids enter junior high.
Additionally, delivering four kids in a 65-year-old body also is irresponsible as the quadruplets are likely to be premature. Even if they survive, they may pay a price for her decision in terms of their health.
Also, a C-section will be involved in her delivery which is dangerous for her. Her decision to get pregnant simply because her daughter wants a sibling sounds baseless.