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By Henry Umahi
When it became obvious that Charity was pregnant, her family, friends and neighbours were bewildered. They couldn’t understand why she did such a thing.
Agreed, she was married but her husband, living in the United States had not been around since after the church dedication of their last child, who is now a little over two years old.
The questions began to fly about: Has she been cheating on her husband? How long has she been cheating? Who has she been cheating with? Does she engage in illicit sex with one partner or many? Is her husband the real owner of her last child who was born shortly before he relocated abroad for greener pastures?
To make matters worse, she was a church worker. She belonged to the evangelism department; she goes out with her colleagues to preach holiness and the good news of salvation.
Her colleagues in the office were no less perplexed because they regarded her as a virtuous woman. Why has the mighty fallen? So, tongues wagged.
When Charity’s mother heard that she was pregnant even when her husband, Jimmy, was still outside the country, she rushed from Kafanchan to Lagos to see her daughter. Seeing her daughter and her visible baby bump, she exploded in tears, saying her enemies had used black magic to confuse her daughter to get pregnant for another man.
Charity told her mother that her husband was the owner of the pregnancy, but she didn’t understand what she was saying. She wondered if Jimmy impregnated her through the air or the telephone.
Charity’s pregnancy was the product of the advancement of modern science. She conceived with Jimmy’s sperm in the bank.
It was the couple’s agreement that she should go to the assisted conception clinic where his sperm was banked. There, a procedure known as intrauterine insemination (IUI) or artificial insemination was carried out, resulting in the pregnancy that shocked many.
Charity is not alone. Many couples are choosing that option to achieve pregnancy when they want even in the absence of the man.
Investigation showed that sperm banking is becoming common as the number of fertility centres or assisted conception clinics are increasing. As the name implies, a sperm bank is a place (fridge) where sperm is stored for years without spoiling. Services offered at fertility centres include surrogacy, artificial insemination, timed intercourse, In-vitro Fertilization (IVF), crypto preservation of sperm, egg donation, embryo donation, ICSI, Gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT) and Zygote intra-fallopian transfer (ZIFT), among others.
Dead men in action
There are also women being impregnated by their dead husbands. Such women use their partner’s sperm in the bank to achieve pregnancy. It enables a grieving widow to have a family she had always wanted. It helps the woman to keep a part of the dead partner with her.
The other time, an American woman was in the news for having the baby of her dead partner. In her case, the sperm was taken from the partner after he died. It was later used to successfully impregnate eggs harvested from her.
Doctors say they sometimes remove sperm from men after they die at the request of the families.
A gynaecologist, Dr Omuku Samuel, was reported by NAN as saying that women at menopause can also bear children with the aid of In-vitro Fertilization (IVF).
He said: “The IVF process is not difficult. It is normally carried out with the help of doctors.
“The process is by joining the female and male sperms together; this can help the persons to have many kids as they want.
“Menopause does not start suddenly, it occurs gradually and it can take up to five years before it can be noticed.
“Menopause starts between the ages of 45 and 55 in a woman. Yes, there are some components that make the woman look younger like the oestrogen hormones. Once a woman lacks such component, her breast and vagina become dry.
“It is the oestrogen that maintains the woman’s private part; signs of menopause include waist and back pain, heat and hot flashes.
“I am advising women with menopause not to lose hope because IVF can make them to reproduce children again.”
Meanwhile, the Global Prolife Alliance (GPA) and Catholic doctors have written to the National Assembly (NASS), calling for the enactment of what they called Human Organ Poaching Prohibition Act (HOPPA) to comprehensively address critical issues related to illegal human organ trafficking and the ethical use of gametes, human ovarian eggs, sperm and embryos.
A statement issued by Dr. Philip C. Njemanze, chairman, Global Prolife Alliance, for the Council on National Policies and BOT member, Association of Catholic Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, Owerri Archdiocese, for the Ethics Committee, said their “goal is to ensure that HOPPA becomes a robust law that serves as a strong deterrent against human organ trafficking and promotes the ethical use of human ovarian eggs, sperm, embryos and gametes.”
