Assisted Reproduction in Developing Countries: The Debate at a Turning Point

Abstract

A recent report in the journal Nature described the story of a woman named Betty Chishava from Harare, Zimbabwe who was thrown out of her family home because she failed to conceive and refused to sleep with her brother in-law to increase her chances of getting pregnant [1]. She did not have access to treatment and in her culture she could not negotiate her status in her family and society outside motherhood. This is not a rare story rather the reality for many infertile women in developing countries. Infertility is not usually considered a developing world problem. Provision of infertility services and especially assisted reproduction are not on the resource allocation agenda. In the era of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with malaria, tuberculosis and many other preventable or treatable diseases still claiming millions of lives, infertility can hardly make a case.