When Ethics Losing Out To Logics

Free Market Babies And Reproductive Tourism 
As egg sales, IVF and surrogacy become more common and commercial, a conflict arises between social justice and profit.
Donna Dickenson

Does India need a new independence struggle?

The fight this time would not be against British colonialism, but rather against the United Kingdom's approach to regulating reproductive medicine. At a time when India is considering a sort of match-making service for Western couples seeking to hire Indian surrogate mothers, the UK government has announced the abolition of two leading medical regulatory agencies.

Meanwhile, as these countries move farther down the road to free markets in reproductive medicine, France is debating all of its bioethics laws - and continuing to stand up for a different model - focused on social justice and protection of vulnerable women. There is an alternative simply to letting the market decide, the French Assembly insists.

At some point, many countries are likely to find themselves embroiled in similar debates and controversies over reproductive rights and obligations. So it is necessary to clarify what is at stake in how we regulate - or de-regulate - in vitro fertilisation (IVF), egg sales, and surrogacy.

It may come as a surprise to observers in the US, in particular, that the British approach could be considered "free market". After all, the UK forbids outright payment for eggs, whereas in the United States, a highly differentiated market has grown up around "consumer demand". And the UK has a national regulatory agency for IVF, whereas the US has a patchwork of state regulations (or a lack thereof).

But the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) might not be around for much longer. Prime Minister David Cameron's government announced in July that it intended to abolish the HFEA by 2014, along with the Human Tissue Authority, which deals with non-reproductive tissues. Already, the HFEA appears to be attempting to preempt the government by softening its regulatory touch.

Last month, the HFEA finished a consultation on increasing the level of "expenses" payable for eggs used in IVF. European law forbids outright payment for eggs, but the Authority suggests that increasing "expenses" considerably would not constitute an impermissible inducement. The HFEA is merely "removing disincentives", not "creating incentives". You could be forgiven for missing the difference.

Proponents of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Regulation Bill 2010, now before the Indian Parliament, employ a similar rhetorical twist. They say that the bill actually protects surrogate mothers - for example, by limiting the number of pregnancies they can undergo. But the law would make surrogacy contracts legally binding, requiring the mother to give up the baby even if she changes her mind.

Opponents say that the agencies making the arrangements will be the biggest winners - that the huge profits they reap will dwarf the fees paid by foreign couples to the women bearing their children. As NB Sarojini and Aastha Sharma wrote in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, "The Bill actively promotes medical tourism in India for reproductive purposes." 

Reproductive tourism

France, like most European countries, has a problem with reproductive tourism: a yearly shortage of about 700 egg donors sends some couples over the Pyrenees to Spain, where private IVF clinics pay providers more in "expenses" than the UK allows. Even so, the draft bill continues to prohibit payment for eggs.

And it's not just France's official ethics committee that takes an anti-commodification stance. The French have recently conducted a series of two-day meetings in several provincial cities. In Rennes, the panel debating reproductive medical issues supported the policy of not paying for eggs or sperm - not even by the back door of increasing the level of "expenses".

While the HFEA document calls for ethical concerns to be "balanced" against increasing egg supply, French Assembly members insist that law, morality, and progress are compatible. They reject the view that ethics is optional, even though some influential professors, such as Rene Frydman, who helped to create the first French IVF baby, have warned that France will fall behind in the science race unless it abandons its principles. The upper house, the Senate, was much more minded to listen to that view, so the outcome is still uncertain.

France is no Shangri-La, isolated from global markets or the pressures of international research. In the words of Emmanuel Hirsch, professor of medical ethics at the University of Paris-XI, "How long can our bioethical standards continue to resist the rise of other logics - particularly financial ones?"

To be sure, French regulation can be heavy-handed. For example, IVF is restricted to heterosexual couples who are married or in long-term relationships. The official rationale was that eggs and sperm are not commodities, but gifts from a fertile couple to an infertile one.

That is also one reason why the French restricted egg donation to women who had already had at least one baby (though this is being changed).

But the limitation to heterosexual couples was rightly condemned as homophobic by the French public in the consultations. So the draft bill has been amended to allow lesbian women to receive donated eggs. Gay men will still be barred, because they would require a surrogate, and surrogacy remains prohibited.

That sort of responsiveness to popular sentiment in the legislative process gives the lie to the canard that French regulation is inflexible and hopelessly bureaucratic. In fact, the free-market "Anglo-Saxon" attitude sounds like nothing so much as the old prejudices about the French that have been around since the novelist Thackeray told English readers: "The Frenchman has after his soup a dish of vegetables, where you have one of meat. You are a different and superior animal - a French-beating animal."

Of course, we now know that a diet of bully beef is likely to result in hardening of the arteries, whereas the vegetable-centered Mediterranean diet is much better for human health. Enough said? 

Donna Dickenson, Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of London, won the International Spinoza Lens Award in 2006 for contributions to public debate on ethics. Her latest book is Body Shopping: Converting Body Parts to Profit.

A version of this article was previously published on the Project Syndicate.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily represent Al Jazeera's editorial policy. 

Source: AlJazeera - May 30, 2011

The Maid - Excessive Baggage + + (3)

I was at the maid agency three Saturdays ago with Suri*.
No, not to send her back, but I needed her feedback for a maid whom she can work with, for My Mother, who is closing in to 80-years old.

Although doctor gave My Mother a clean bill of health, but normal mobility is sometime handicapped.
Age is fast catching up on her.
Now, she had decided to stay at any of Her Children's houses.
But Her Daughters, except Me, will be in school in the day.
So, the only option is to get a minder to accompany Her.
The Grandchildren are either working or in schools too.

After the selected biodatas of maids willing to look after the aged, I passed to Suri.
She rejected all, except one. 

"Kenapa yang itu saja?" I asked Suri.

"Saya pilih yang dari Demak atau Pati saja. Biar Nyai senang bicara."

Brilliant girl!
I had never think of it.
My Mother's Maternal side from Pati and her father from Demak, both in Central Java.
It just so happened that Suri is from Demak too.

Alas, the maid she selected, from Pati, is still in Jakarta.
She will only be available in a month's time, that is, if she pass her test.

There was a transfer maid from Pati, but the first impression said, better not ask her to work.
Her weak and pale look said she should be having a long, good rest. 
True enough, she was returned for the third time, all being sick while at work.

Very rare can we find a maid from Demak, being the province having enough for all, according to the agency's boss, Madam Sarah*

A month, too long the wait.
For reasons known to us, Madam Sarah would also prefer us to have a maid from Central Java too.
We had no other choice but to end up choosing another available transfer maid from Surabaya.

If given the choice, the maid from Surabaya will not want to work for the elderly.
Willing or not to be with elderly, the feeling can be nurtured, said Suri.

Before Suri entered into My Sister's household, she knew she will not want if asked to work for elderly too. But because of filial piety, nature took its course.
Before she realised, great concern for My Mother developed naturally in Suri*.

******

"Ini Suri*?" Asked Madam Sarah.  

"Ya, Bu," she replied.

Madam Sarah had failed to recognise Suri, one of her maids, after a lapse of five years.
She realised the total transformation of the girl since five years ago.
She does not look like a maid, nor look Indonesian.
She looks 100% Singaporean, with ordinary youngster's dressing.

Seeing Suri had made her day, said Madam Sarah.
The sight of Suri that night assured her of a good night sleep.

Earlier, for the whole day, Madam Sarah was plagued with a problematic maid.
The whole day she was attending to a maid, whom she said, pushed away good luck.
The maid was about to finish her two-year contract when she was asked to continue her service.
The two toddlers she looked after, four and two-years old, are too attached with her.

The maid laid down her term for extension.
She needs off days, which the employer agreed, for the toddlers' sake.

The employer was at her working place when she received a police call.
She was asked to pick her maid at the police station.
She thought nothing of it, just some innocent offence of littering, she told herself.

But her domestic worker gave her the shock of her life - She was caught with a Bangladeshi man in a very compromising act at the beach not far from her house.
The employer was then shown the maid's handphone by the police.
It shocked her more - Her intimate photos with a male.

Worst shock of all, the four and two-years old toddlers were locked at home.
Just the two of them, to fend for themselves.

****** 

Pregnant Indonesian Maid Leapt To Her Death

A pregnant Indonesian maid took her own life when she became emotionally upset that her married boyfriend refused to break off with his girlfriend in Batam, a coroner's court heard.

Anis Dwi Rianawati had asked her 45-year-old Malaysian boyfriend to choose between her and his girlfriend in Batam hours before her death.

Her boyfriend requested time to think about it. During their long conversation at his place on Oct 24 last year, Rianawati, 29, had swallowed some health supplements belonging to her boyfriend, who stopped her and kept patting her back to get her to throw out.

Anis lost consciousness for a while and when she came to, he tried to stop her from leaving as he was afraid that she would do something foolish. But Anis managed to get a cab back to her employer's apartment block in Meyer Road. He drove there and called her down to talk things over. She again insisted that he call his girlfriend in Batam but he refused. She tried to call her but there was no response.

She then threatened to take her own life. Her boyfriend followed her into the lift and she threatened to jump when the lift reached the 20th floor. They got to the ground floor and she ran out.

When he found her near the guard house, she again asked him to call his girlfriend to break up with her, but he ignored her and left. That was the last time Anis was seen alive.

Source: The Jakarta Globe - February 7, 2011

******

A month into her job as domestic worker in July 2008, 24-year old Umi Umiroh from West Java, was plagued by dreams of a crying baby in her employer's semi-detached house.
She did not understand why.

She told her friends about her dreams the next day.
She usually met them at Ling Kwang Home in Serangoon Gardens, the old age home, where she took her employer's mother for therapy sessions twice a week.

They said thing that shocked her - It was the ghost of the previous maid's baby that haunted her.
Later that day, while trimming grass in the garden, she smelled something foul.
Remembering what her friends had said, she related her fears to her employer, Patricia Goh.

The bombshell was dropped - Kirun*, the previous domestic worker, had given birth to a baby.
She then allegedly killed it and buried it in the garden of the two-storey semi-detached house.

A police report was made that same night.
The next day at about 9am, the police, accompanied by four sniffer dogs, spent three hours in the garden. Then the uniform personnel was seen digging up something buried about 15cm deep into the soil.
It was wrapped with a yellow batik cloth.

Some small bones were recovered and analysed by the Health Science Authority.
The baby had allegedly been born prematurely.
It was not known when the baby was buried and no foul smell came from the garden.

None of Patricia's family members had any idea that Kirun was pregnant.
She was always seen wearing loose-fitting batik dresses or oversized T-shirts.

Kirun, married with two children, was employed by Patricia's younger brother in June 2006.
The siblings live with their elderly parents in their house along Hillside Drive.

Kirun's main job was to take the siblings' 82-year-old mother to Ling Kwang Home in Serangoon Gardens, for physiotherapy sessions twice a week.
She had been disabled for three years after suffering a stroke.
They would take a taxi to reach the home, a facility for the elderly, spending about seven hours from 8.30am to 3pm.
Kirun went back to her hometown in Surabaya, Indonesia, on 22nd of June.
.
Umi Umiroh arrived at Ms Goh's house on 6th June, spent two weeks with Kirun before she returned home. Umi was employed because Kirun's contract with them had ended.

It was at the Ling Kwang Home that Umi heard from other maids about Kirun and her premature baby.
She heard from their mutual friends, domestic workers too, about Kirun's confession.
She told her friends she had secretly given birth to a premature baby girl in the toilet of her employer's house. She was allegedly about seven months pregnant at the time.
She did not know what to do with the baby, so she just killed her, and later buried in the backyard.

Occasionally, according to Patricia, Kirun tend to be rude and talked back.
Desite being grumpy, she completed the household chores.
The incident reminded Patricia when she saw Kirun boiling water with ginger to drink.
Perhaps she was nursing a cold, or she could have just given birth then.

The siblings were not strict with Kirun.
She was given Sundays off whenever she asked for them.

******

Kirun, before her departure, had told Umi that she had at least two boyfriends in Singapore.

When asked about her boyfriend, Kirun told Umi about having an abortion after being pregnant for three months.
The aborted baby had been fathered by the Bangladeshi boyfriend.

A week after the chat, Umi saw Kirun taking post-natal jamu (herbs).
Umi asked her if she was pregnant, as she was concerned about Kirun spending time with her boyfriend. Before she met her Bangladeshi boyfriend, she was seeing a Myanmar national.
Kirun was able to meet the men while waiting for the therapy sessions at the old age home to end.

Umi told her not to do indecent things since she has a husband and two teenage children back home.
Umi told her not to be crazy by becoming pregnant, as she would get kicked out of Singapore.
Kirun shrugged the reminder off.
She had relationship with her Bangladeshi boyfriend who gave her $10 each time they met.

Three days before Kirun left Singapore, she took Umi out to meet her Bangladeshi boyfriend, who asked her to be his girlfriend after Kirun returned home.

Umi Umiroh had left her own baby in the care of her parents to come to work in Singapore.
Her husband died in a car accident a year ago when she was six months' pregnant with their first child.

She never thought such a nice person like Kirun, would have not only an abortion, but went so far as to kill her own living baby.

Of Sean, Sam And Petom's Soul

Sean Penn made me watching Sam Dawson in him, when I jolly well knew that myself is not any movie fan.
But few nights ago, over HBO, I saw Sam in Sean and I saw Petom in Sam.

'I Am Sam' is, to me, a good but narrative and insipid Hollywood movie that touches a mental condition that most people would usually not giving a second thought to it.
'I Am Sam' is about Sam Dawson whose normal daughter, Lucy Diamond (Dakota Fanning) is taken away by the court.
Sam, a mentally retarded man with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, fights for custody of his 7 year old daughter, Lucy Diamond, named after one of the Beatles song, as he is obsessed with the group.

Lucy's mother is a homeless woman whom Sam had a fling with, who abandons him and their daughter as they leave the hospital.

******

Sam works at a Starbucks but as Lucy coming to the age of seven, she intentionally hold back to avoid looking smarter than her father as Sam's limitations start to become a problem at her school.

The court intervened as it do not advocate severely developmentally challenged folks becoming parents, as the situation can lead to child's unbecoming future.
The authorities take Lucy away.

They had Lucy's best interests in mind, without realising they are doing a despicable act on Sam.
Lucy, while being observed, said to Sam, "I want no other daddy but you."

Then, she turns to the glass and shouts, "Did you hear that? I said I didn't want any other daddy but him. Why don't you write that down?"

When the court asks her, she said, "All you need is love."

Along the custody process, Sam shames his selfish high-priced lawyer Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer), into taking his case pro bono.
Along the custody process too, Sam teaches cold-hearted lawyer Rita, about family value.
Lucy, amidst her father's disability, is a happy child but Rita, with all her success and wealth, brings up a miserable, lonely son.
Rita and her husband had both fail as a parent.

In the process, Rita learns a great deal about family love, and with the help of Rita, Sam finally gets Lucy back with an arrangement that Lucy's foster mother, Randy Carpenter (Laura Dern), who Lucy lived with, during the trial period, help to raise her.

******

'I Am Sam', a 2001 American drama film, written and directed by Jessie Nelson and Kristine Johnson, and Petom, stuck in her real-life drama, way back before 2001 and way back before I even knew her - her not reel-drama being written and directed by the society at large.

Sam, a man with a developmental disability, lived in Los Angeles, worked at Starbucks, and the sole guardian of his six-year-old intelligent daughter Lucy, after her mother abandoned them.
Cruel as it was, while in preparation for a custody case, Lucy was taken away from Sam by a social worker who turned up at her seventh birthday party, allowing Sam two supervised visits per week.

Petom, with the same mental of Sam, was at home all her life, had never work, so she can be easily lured and worked on by men, old men, very old men, who were always on the pretext of leaving early for the morning prayers.

Whenever Petom was seen holding or bringing back her favourite breakfast, a packet of 50sen nasi lemak in mid-morning, almost all the villagers will knew that very soon, the village midwife will be kept busy, will often visiting her house as Petom will be indoor at all time.

During these time, all the men, old men, very old men, as if by co-incidence, did not easily lure her with the 50sen breakfast, until she delivered one of their many children.

Petom delivered these men's children to the world, without ever holding and nurturing them.

Yes, Petom is the mother of many (?)  children.
These babies would soon be 'given away' by those who assumed she was always in oblivion state when in fact, she knew and could relate happily to me well, how it was having babies kicking inside her and what was it like when in labour.

While Petom had been a mother many (?) times over, her mental dysfunction robbed her of even a whirl parenthood.
As she said, she understood herself well, but even normal people, like her parents, do not bring up normal children.
Some normal parents just happen to have children, just like her.
She claimed, normal people can be bad parents too.

As she said, should there be parenting courses for people like her, she would be more than willing to attend classes, so as to be able to shower her eternal motherly love to her many (?) children.

******

I see her well reasoning in wanting, if possible, to raise her own kids, is not a passe statement.
It will be voiced again and again, by people like her, with some form of mental disability.
Her yearning heart was not voiced then, to her surroundings.
Even when she did, those people who assumed are having the best mind among the best, 'fit to think', will think, and will take action, on her behalf.

I had acquainted Petom from a distance, always through a third party, who will think, will judge, and took action, on her behalf.
Myself then, had always wanted to be part of the 'sane society', too.

******

When Sam's high-powered lawyer Rita fought for his right, Petom had her right violated, with no understanding and motherly support from other mothers.

Unlike Lucy's mother who chose to abandon her and her father, Petom had never choose to abandon her children and her men, but all her heartless evil men were all not ashamed of the absent responsibilities they all share, towards her, her children, and their children.
It was the society that chose to determine Petom's children's welfare and future.

Petom, like Sam, with all their limitations, were well-adjusted, at times.
So, she knew by face and by name, who the men were with him, and their houses, and their families.
Who had her the most, and who were with her, the least.

******

Sam was blessed with his supportive group of friends with the same mental disabilities.
He was able to provide a conducive environment in caring for Lucy, who soon surpasses his mental ability, with the help of his kind neighbour too.

Petom had kind neighbours too, who often saw, amidst the early morning darkness, who the men, old men, very old men were, who often mentioned the 50sen nasi lemak near her room - but they chose to blame Petom solely for all the babies that she bore and gave birth to.
'Her kind neighbours' chose not to blame the men, old men, very old men out of not wanting to cause rift of neighbourly relationships.
Petom's parents were at their wits end for having bias neighbours.

******

For having bestowed with maternal instinct, come Mondays, Petom would stationed herself at the nearby government polyclinic as she knew come Mondays, mothers would bring their babies and toddlers for checkups and appointments.
She would stand by at the gate, befriending unsuspecting mothers with babies, and would eagerly volunteered to carry them into the clinic, just for the sake of getting close to 'her own babies which she never get the chance to even hold them'.

She was always already at the clinic whenever I had my appointments, all ready, preparing to hold babies, anybody's babies, for that matter, and I was once one of the unsuspecting mothers too.
Although reluctant, I gave in to her, as she gazed with pleading eyes.
At once, her maternal love radiates a warm glow that was never before seen and felt.

But it was short lived, as a nurse grabbed my baby from her as she was happily relating her experience of having babies.
The nurse scolded and shooed her away, warning her of never to come in close contact with babies again, fearing of her kidnapping them.

Petom left the clinic crying her heart out, just like Sam, whom at the trial, broke down after opposing counsel convinced him that he is not capable of being a father.

******

Lucy had her friends teasing her for having a 'retard' as a father, and she becomes too embarrassed to accept that she is more intellectually advanced than her father, Sam.
And Petom's parents were too embarrassed with the society, especially the villagers, even as how wrong the villagers might be.

Never in the parents' wildest dream that they have had a daughter like Petom, or a son like Seman, whom some of the men, old men, very old men, who befriended Seman's sister, taught and passed their 'skills' to Seman.

So, Seman could be found coming out from the house wearing baju kurung, very early before dawn, on the pretext of leaving early for morning prayers, but hid himself among bushes, 'exposing' himself to unsuspecting passers-by.

Petom and Seman's parents, did have a 'normal' married daughter, whom after their marriage, as it was known, the husband, and not the wife, who took the daily planning pills.

******

Unlike helping Sam's parental rights, had helped lawyer Rita herself, with her family problems and repairing her relationship with her son, but Petom's life revolved around the village, the villagers and the society, who, altogether, had prejudge her with their undisputed judgment - she is, until today, a village menace who needs no sympathy, and her presence is best ignored, by those neighbours who had used her,
by families of neighbours who had abused her,
and by neighbours who knew of neighbours who had exploited her mental develpoment disability.

Through 'I Am Sam', I am able to have a better understanding of Petom - she knew what she had wanted all along: Seeing her children.
But what she needed: Holding them, was not even met.

Such a wisdom taken by the 'sane society',
the wisdom that is still existing until today.  

'I Am Sam' offered me a unique twists of reel-life 'sane society' versus all the real-life mental disabilities saga.

Should I be able to turn back the clock...
If I could, I surely would be trying.

But I had just recently found out,
Petom had just recently passed away. 






.

The Other World Story - Love Of The Dead

"Engkau nak balik tengok anak?" Mak Maznah asked the lady with flowing hair who was sitting on her own graveyard. 

It was around 7pm and the mother of four had just been buried hours earlier. 
She died of birth complication. 
Although her baby survived the ordeal, she lost too much blood to live on. 

"Sapa engkau cakap tu Nah?" Her grandmother was curious seeing the teenager (then) talking. 

"Orang yang mati tadi. Kesian dia, Nek." She explained to her grandmother as she pointed outside through the ajar window at her kitchen overlooking the plot of cemetery at Pasir Panjang not far from Haw Par Villa.

The grandmother spared no time. 
She quickly went to the dead lady's house informing the husband what had just happened. 
The husband, with his father, went to the graveyard and performed some religious ritual that very night. 

From then on, nothing of the similar incident happened again.

Hard for me to believe the story related by my elderly neighbour although I knew she's not lying.
She had told me many other stories which, if she is able to write and with memories still fresh, can be compiled into short stories of the unseen world.

But as I read today's Star, how the story likened.

******

Unbearable loss: A family member (right) consoling H’ng during the funeral in Bukit Mertajam.
 

Tuesday September 28, 2010 - Teen Spirits ‘Visit’ Daughter Every Night 
THE spirits of a teenage couple killed in an accident recently has been “visiting” their daughter every night since the incident, a Taoist monk has told the family, according to Sin Chew Daily.
Teh Boh Yi, 19, and his wife Khor Lee Mui, 17, who married eight months ago, were travelling in a multi-purpose vehicle with three friends when a lorry slammed into the car, causing it to spin at the middle span of the Penang Bridge before crashing.

Baby orphan: A family member holding Chloe during her parents’ funeral yesterday. Photos: The Star

“The monk told us that my son and daughter-in-law came back to our house every night but they could no longer hold their baby Chloe.
“No wonder after their funeral, Chloe was always laughing while lying on her bed as though someone was playing with her,” said Khor’s mother.
She also urged the road users, especially youngsters, not to speed on the roads.

Plus-Sized Women News

We had just read about  Sharon Mevsimler,  Britain's heaviest woman, who fed herself to death at 40 leaving behind a husband and 4 children.

To fight post-natal depression, she sought solace in food, junk food for precise, consuming more than 12,000 calories a day - 10,000 more than the recommended amount.
Her weight soon balloned to 285kg.

After she died, her specially strengthened hospital bed collapsed as she was being wheeled to the mortuary 2 Satudays ago.

******

Then today, I came across Italy's full-figured woman as its latest beauty queen.  

Angela Scognamiglio, who weighs at 170kg, is the new Miss Chubby. (photo from Chinanews.com.cn)

Weighing 170kg, the title of Miss Chubby went to Angela Scognamiglio, 33-year-old from Naples, last Saturday night. She had beaten out 30 other contestants for the title.
As in all past 20 editions of the pageant, there is only one condition for entering: contestants have to weigh more than 100kg.

The contest was held in the Tuscany village of Forcoli, near the city of Pisa.
Contestants paraded before an audience of 2500 at a local hotel wearing evening gowns, or for those who cared to show more, swimwear for some. Some even dared a little striptease.

But the crucial moment in the contest was the weigh-in, stepping onto a giant red scale where everyone could see the result - with the roundest beauty clinching the title.
Instead of celebrating hourglass figure or stick-thin body frame, the beauty pageant sang praises for roundness and chubbiness.

And instead of jewelleries or endorsement deals, the winner got a huge cake that she could share with the rest.

The founder of the contest, Gianfranco Lazzereschi said the contest is a showcase for full figures. Why is it necessary to follow the dictates of what's beautiful?

He, with his way to deliver another kind of message about beauty.

******

Yesterday, another news about big, big woman.

240-kg Woman Dies Five Months After Delivery

In this Feb 17, 2010 file picture Victoria Lacatus, 25, who weighed 528 pounds (240 kilograms), is lifted by fire fighters out of an ambulance in Bucharest, Romania, to a hospital where she gave birth by Caesarean section to a girl.

Relatives of Victoria Lacatus, a 25-year-old Romanian woman who weighed 240kg (528 pounds) when she gave birth to a baby girl more than five months ago, has died of a heart attack on Sunday after developing a high fever last week and breathing problems, media reported Monday.

She was hospitalized in her home town of Caracal in southern Romania before she was moved to the main regional hospital where she died.

Doctors from Craiova hospital in southern Romania said Lacatus' heart stopped.
Hospital manager Florin Petrescu said doctors tried to resuscitate Lacatus for 30 minutes, a task made difficult because of her extreme obesity.

Her sister Cristina Sosoiu told the daily Libertatea that after she gave birth by cesarean section to a 6.4 pounds (2.9 kilograms) baby girl on Feb. 18, Lacatus gained another 44 pounds (20 kilograms).
Doctors had told Lacatus to go on a diet but she apparently kept eating, the paper reported.

Nicolae Cernea, a doctor from the southern city of Craiova - where Lacatus was hospitalized for a month before delivery - said her case was unique in Romania.
Lacatus was transported from her village in southern Romania to Bucharest because the local hospital did not have any beds that could bear her weight.
While in hospital for the delivery, Lacatus was carefully monitored because she suffered from a thyroid problem and there was possibility of post-surgery complications because of her morbid obesity.

Florin Costandache, who helped perform the child-birth operation, said: “It was a real challenge because she needed four times the anesthetic a normal person needs.”

When Lacatus gave birth on Feb. 18, Dr. Daghni Rasasingham, of Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in London said the case was rare, given the mother's weight and height of 5 feet and 3 inches (1.6 meters).
Rasasingham said she would be at risk of clots, diabetes, post-birth bleeding and infection.

Her daughter, Anisoara, currently weighs just a little over 9 pounds (4 kilograms), the paper said.
She lives with her maternal grandmother.

It is not clear why the baby does not live with her father, Costica Lacatus, who is slimmer, weighing just 70kg.

Smokey Issues

Some deejays of Singapore radio stations today, were expressing their disgust feelings, talking about a 4 year-old Indonesian boy who smoke, having the ambition to become a thief when he grows up and will patronise prostitutes with the ill-gotten money.
More than 1,000 people had viewed him on YouYube before it was brought down. The father, in his 50s said, his son had been asking for cigarettes since he's one.

Smoke?
I have a smoker-girlfriend who brand non-smoker males as 'incomplete' and 'not macho enough'. Needless to say, she chose a chain-smoker as a husband, but a close friend who looked after her baby nephew since birth had no choice - she had to blow cigarette smoke all over the newborn if his cryings and wailings went for hours.
She claimed his body's aching all over. She should had known better as the baby's father is her own brother.

The baby's parents were drug abusers. Cannabis brought them together as a couple and married them off. So, had the drug in any way affected the newborn? I bet.
The baby would cry for hours and my friend would lace a cigarette with white powder, keep the smoke in her mouth and blew it slowly all over the baby. Then the baby will sleep for hours too.
Maybe my friend was right - the baby's body aching all over.

Her brother refused to let his wife care for the baby for he pretty well understood she could not even care for herself. I had seen the baby's mother once before she walked out of the marriage - she's almost toothless or whatever teeth left were all black.
I am not a person to judge characters so, I was able to communicate with Ghani, the baby's father.

On many occasions, he tried hard to turn over a new leaf.
Upon being released from rehabiliation centre and for his child's sake, he became a cobbler at Pasar Baru. He found peace with shoes around him and yes, he did quite well with the new trade - but it's short lived.
The person whom he used to get his 'ware' knew of his whereabout and started frequenting his working place, sitting around for hours, persuading him to continue where he had left.
After a few months, I was informed he was being caught for cannabis pocession but was released after co-operating with police officers of his supplier - the supplier was caught, his house, car and money were confiscated.
The news of the haul was reported in local paper, but he's a free man again after 2 weeks, not reported, this time.

Again, Ghani was caught for reasons known best to him and sent to (either) prison / rehabiliation ( I've forgotten) in Negeri Sembilan. From then on, his life went downhill.
After spending time in Negeri Sembilan, he was sent home, feeling very sick. I was at his house on few occasions but his family kept him in his own room. I would hear endless coughing, and he's coughing out blood, until his death.
                            
Baby? Thank God, he grew up a fine man who is now working in school lab, never give my friend any headache and choosy about his circle of friends - always refering to his father's circle of friends as comparison.