Angelina, IVF and me

A recent widely circulated report saw claims that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s twins had been conceived via IVF. The standard unnamed “source” was quoted as saying IVF was used so Jolie “wouldn’t have to deal with the stress of trying to get pregnant.”

A few short (hopefully fictionalized) sentences and a world filled with many many fertile people who are completely ignorant of ART and all it involves, let out a collective “tsk tsk” about the kind of reasons people pursue IVF.

After the birth of the twins, there came a mega-millions deal to buy the rights to photos of the happy couple and their offspring. In the accompanying interview which appeared in People and Hello, Jolie is quoted as saying;

“There were reports that the twins were conceived through IVF. Would you like to comment on that?

Angelina: If they had been conceived through IVF we would have been happy to discuss it. But we have been fortunate never to have had fertility problems.”

Fine, but probably a bit too late for us who are a bit sensitive about infertility and feel the need sometimes to protect ART and the reasons for its use. Many will have already decided that IVF is an easy baby making system for those with the money.

Angelina Jolie, it is nobody’s business but your own (and maybe Brad’s) if you did use IVF to conceive your twins.

Not that there is anything wrong with using IVF. If that is what you did.

The world has watched breathlessly as you have assembled a large family of your own. You have adopted, conceived and delivered yourself a total of six children with apparent ease. The tabloids have this week that you are either suffering post-natal depression and/or out searching for a seventh baby via adoption.

The likes of yourself and Madonna bring overseas adoption to our attention. Adopt a child become a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations. I jest, it can’t be that easy. Can it? It is just that I remember the old days, before you become the re-imagined Angelina, Earth Mother. When you experimented with bi-sexuality, appeared as some kind of Goth Princess, and even later claimed to wear a vile of your husband’s blood around your neck. Again, your sexuality and lifestyle choices are yours to make. Your taste in neck adornments were plain icky!

We all watched as the younger Angelina made (alleged) comments about estrangement from both of her own parents, in turn, and later made closely scrutinized public comments about her relationship with her brother. These are all things of the past. Or at least we hope these issues won’t form the basis of Jolie’s own family life.

Angelina is now cornering the celebrity third world adoption market, a role once exclusively the domain of Mia Farrow. We trust that Brad Pitt will not later involve himself in a Woody Allen/Soon-Yi situation.

The Nordic-type fairness of Brad combined with the Slovak-German-French-Canadian looks of Jolie was always going to make it difficult to explain a child of Ethiopian appearance as their own, perhaps unless through the use of sperm and egg donation.

It seems adoption is okay. Celebrity adoption of third world children is even heroic and glamorous.

I could be wrong, but sometimes I wonder if non-celebrities (no matter how cashed up) fare so well in overseas adoption? In my own country I am too old for adoption locally. International adoption is not an option due to costs and the lengthy red-tape and official procedure. I applaud any person or couple who is able to stick with this process one, or even more times.

Perhaps celebrity admissions of infertility are a bit like witch trials of the sixteenth century? Deny links to the supernatural and be sentenced to death. Seek mercy through confession and be burnt at the stake for good measure.

Just say for a moment Brad and Angelina, commonly referred to by their gestalt name of ‘Brangelina’ did use IVF to combine their motherload of superior genetics (well at least in the physical attractiveness department!) to make these babies, what is there to be ashamed of? Perhaps they want to protect their babies from the knowledge that their conception was helped along by medical science?

Would box office takings be affected by the knowledge that Brad’s swimmers need a little encouragement? Would Lara Croft not seem as adventurous if we suspected her child baring hips were indeed barren?

Brad and Angelina have a right to some privacy. Fertility, or lack thereof should be allowed to remain the business of the people concerned. Brangelina through the celebrity auctioning of photographs off to the highest bidder merely aids in making their lives continued public fodder. So the millions paid for those gorgeous shots are going to charity? The real cost is the selling of the babies’ privacy and right to non-celebrity status from birth.

Infertility? Well it is to be ignored or denied. I can’t imagine Brad and Angelina will be too concerned about the infertility reports.

Would it be possible to feel infertile with six children living under your roof? Infertile people can only wonder.

I’d be happy to start with just one child.