Lack of awareness encourages illegality
Groundbreaking discoveries in medicinal science have enabled people wishing for offsprings to consider methods that seemed only imaginative at one point in time. In Pakistan’s context, where the wish to advance one’s lineage is a dominant cultural norm, the discoveries are of utmost significance as not having children can create a host of familial problems.
For instance, intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) have offered couples longing for children a new lease of hope. One such couple hailing from Mardan is 35-year-old Mursaleen Khan and his wife, who tried for over a decade to have a child but to no avail. “We went to everyone and everywhere, be it religious people or doctors. After spending millions of rupees over the course of 10 years, we spent Rs 25,000 on a test-tube procedure and were gifted with a baby,” Mursaleen informed this reporter.
Like many other couples across the country, the pressure to conceive a child subjected the couple to immense stress and Mursaleen does not wish anyone to go through a similar depressive phase. “Most people do not have any awareness or education and some are misguided by quacks and fake faith healers. The government should highlight that other medical procedures exist so people do not fall for the gimmicks of these fake doctors trying to mint money.”
Mursaleen’s suggestion comes in light of there being only two centres for test-tube babies or the IVF procedure in all of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and that too in private clinics. Given the taboo and K-P’s social fabric, most couples prefer a visit to either Karachi, Lahore, or Islamabad where the procedure’s cost increases ten-fold.
A health technician at one of the bigger hospitals in K-P, talking about childbirth procedures on the condition of anonymity, said that despite surrogacy’s illegality in the country doctors perform the procedure routinely under the table. In Pakistan surrogacy, which is another medical way of having a child, has been declared invalid and against Islamic laws by the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). He was of the view that if surrogacy can exist in K-P, then procedures like IUI and IVF, which are not illegal, should be encouraged instead of people having to rely on committing a crime just to have children.
Dr Alamgir Yousafzai concurs with the view that in K-P’s context IVF treatment should be encouraged. “Most people in K-P are still unaware of test-tube babies and often go through harmful treatments to conceive a child.” Dr Yousafzai said that the cost of IVF procedure in K-P was barely Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 but due to the taboo and no government initiative people had to go to other cities and spend close to half a million rupees. “If the government provides a special centre for IVF and other procedures for fertilisation, not only will it create a safe environment but it will also add to K-P’s economy,” Dr Yousafzai told The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2022.