Controversy over government support for family
An Australian woman who was the world’s first mother of two sets of quadruplets has given birth to twins. Dale and Darren Chalk are now the parents of 11 children under the age of 7 – two sets of quads, one set of twins and two singletons. (One of the second set of quads died.) All of the children were conceived with donor sperm.

The parents are now copping flack for having too many children and their IVF clinic for allowing multiple births.

Mr Chalk angrily rejected criticism that it was wrong to have so many children. "People are going to write and criticise, and say it’s taxpayers’ money," he told The Australian. "But we don’t ask people to help us, we do it ourselves."

However, Melbourne bioethicist Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, said "it’s not up to the government or anyone else to tell people how many children they can have". And Justin Oakley, director for the Centre for Human Bioethics at Monash University commented that a century ago, it was common to find large families and that "we didn’t say people were being irresponsible". ~ Australian,Oct 13

Jared Yee

• Author
• Recent Posts

Michael Cook

Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)

• Queensland legalises ‘assisted dying’ - September 19, 2021
• Is abortion a global public health emergency? - April 11, 2021
• Dutch doctors cleared to euthanise dementia patients who have advance directives - November 22, 2020