A young couple in Canada decided they don’t want to have more than two kids, but their doctor won’t perform a tubal ligation.
Tarrah Seymour is 21 and pregnant with her second child. She and her husband, Adam Sylvester, who is 23, know they don’t want to have any more children, so they asked the OB/GYN, Dr. Kayode Ayodele, to perform the sterilization during Seymour’s planned C-section. He refused because of their ages, claiming Seymour might ”get involved with someone else down the road and regret her decision.” He flat out won’t perform the procedure on anyone under 25.
This is another case of people being treated like they can’t make their own decisions about their own bodies because of age (not to mention the doctor’s blatant disregard for their commitment as a couple). It’s a case that could result in forcing this couple to have more children than they want. It also calls out the idea that all women are supposed to want lots o’ babies (I know this is the decision of both parents in this case, but I have yet to hear of any doctor refusing to perform a vasectomy), and that anyone who thinks she’s all set without kids or with the number that she has is just kidding herself. Or she just doesn’t know her own desires well enough to know what she really wants. Silly woman, you obviously didn’t think this through!
Why is that people can decide to have children at any time, but when you decide not to, your age is paraded out to question your decision? I’m 25 and I’ve always known I don’t want kids – and no, I am not likely to change my mind. People I went to high school and college with have them already. Some people decide yes, some decide no, what’s the difference?
I hope this couple can find a doctor that respects them enough to let them make their own family decisions. -Liza
(Picture from The Simpsons)
